I understand there is a movement afoot to recruit former Bush administration official Condoleezza Rice as president of The University of Alabama. While some of the commentary in The Crimson White on this has obviously been delivered with tongue in cheek, some people may be taking this seriously. Seriously? As a two-degree alumnus of The University of Alabama, a long-time journalist and a former staff writer for The Crimson White, I would strongly advise against this choice.
This is the person who, along with the other merchants of death in the Bush years – Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, et al. – advised Bush to authorize the invasion of Iraq because of bad intelligence claiming Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Her most famous quote: “The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
The New York Times, which I worked for at the time, has apologized for its flawed coverage of this issue up to the war in Iraq. But Rice has never apologized. She still maintains she was right, just like her delusional former boss. She is also credited with advising the president and the CIA to authorize torture. Every university student should watch the movie “The Unknown Known” by Errol Morris.
These people should never have been allowed to come to power in this country, and they should not be rewarded in the private or public sector for nearly destroying American credibility and democracy forever. We still face grave threats every day and public officials like Rice should apologize for their roles in making these threats worse.
Leadership means more than just always doing the right thing. It also includes admitting you are wrong when history proves it. Rice should admit that she was wrong. Until she does, she should not be rewarded with high-paying jobs of public responsibility and the Board of Trustees at The University of Alabama should look elsewhere for trusted leadership.
Glynn Wilson is the editor and publisher of The New American Journal.
