"The administration created false expectations not just for the American people, but also for the Iraqi people," Boxer said. "Madame Secretary, our country is sick at heart of the spin and the false expectations."

Boxer charged that Rice, last weekend, added a new layer of subterfuge to the debate over Iraq when she said on NBC's Meet the Press that the reason the United States invaded Iraq was because of the attack on September 11. Rice said rather than just going after the Afghanistan-based al Qaida, the Bush administration decided to go against the root cause of extremism, which meant building a democratic Middle East.

"Let me tell you, if the people of the United States of America knew at the time that our mission was to rebuild the entire Middle East, which you have several times called a malignancy ... if that was what the war was about -- the first war and even the second war -- they would have walked away from this administration long before they've walked away. And they are gone," Boxer said.


Bush credibility haunts Rice testimony

By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced a skeptical and at times combative Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday in her first hearing on Iraq before the panel since she assumed office.

http://about.upi.com/products/perspectives/UPI-20051019-053253-6256R


Informant: John Calvert