Comments about ‘Condoleezza Rice at BYU: Improved education should be among top priorities for U.S.’

I liked the relationship she was drawing between optimism and entitlement-based thinking. It was interesting to think about the idea that entitlement-based thinking comes from a lack of optimism about the future and that entitlements may encourage pessimism, which creates a cycle.

She also gave her parents props for the way her life turned out. (Not programs, policies, etc.).

Somebody please tell me as a conservative, why are we spending so much of our money, giving tons of resources and losing young American lives for a cause that is even more worthless than Vietnam. I wish conservatives would not always blindly agree with everything Hannit and Limbaugh say. I am conservative in so many issues, but this war is for nothing. We do not even hear about it. I am sick over these never ending wars. As someone who proudly is part of the John Birch Society, I totally condemn our war in Afghanistan.

I too believe that the US should not be engaged in these wars for the purpose of nation building. On the other hand, I see a legitimate US interest in protecting ourselves from terrorist regimes, and Rice's linking the war in Afghanistan to this interest is not entirely without merit. I think the answer is to find ways to protect ourselves in our own country and to support democracy abroad through less costly means than military action. I don't think it was an entirely bad thing to oppose communist totalitarianism in Vietnam either, but as with Afghanistan, I think there are other ways to protect ourselves from and oppose evil regimes and their ideologies. One way is to not engage in commerce with the regimes or their ideological partners, and this includes oil, especially since we have plenty of our own right here in America. A little more isolationism and protectionism is exactly what America needs at this point in history.

Are the people who protest Rice "Racist"? Or just those who protest Obama?

Why are people not drawing the conclusion that the huge expense of two wars over a ten year period by both a Republican and a Democrat has bankrupted our nation? As they say, we are a 'nation of sheep led by wolves.'

Interesting headline "..complete the job in Afghanistan.."
I agree that it would be more effective to promote peace and stability by building schools and sustainable agriculture than remote control bombing. It is, perhaps, ironic it was during Ms. Rice tenure as USSOS that Bin Laden made his escape from Bora Bora.
Mission Accomplished?

Who is protesting Rice?

The only useful question is: are we making more terrorists than we are preventing by contuing our occupation of Afghanistan? I'm not qualified to answer that question. I'd like to see the evidence.

'At BYU, Condoleezza Rice says U.S. must complete job in Afghanistan' - Title

You mean the job in afghanistan, that factually started under the administration you were a part of.

That job.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Rice is a nice person.

However, I continue to hear the calls of 'finish the job'...

that others started and failed to finish themselves.

We will never bring the troops home! Sec. Rice knows that if you bring the troops home, then you bring the war home. Fight the bad guys on their turf. Unfortunately, US military lives will continue to be lost in this cause in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, to protect us here at home. We will never retreat from liberating the captive around the world. We never came home from Germany, Japan, or Korea. We have bases still in operation around the world. Liberty will roll forth until it fills every corner of the earth.

"The United States has a job to help wounded states heal not just because democracy is morally right, but also because it's practical for the health of a global community" - Condaleezza Rice.

Really?

The Republican position is that we must heal foreign nations, but healing American citizens (i.e. health care) is NOT morally right, and is NOT practical for the health of the our national community?

What a twisted philosophy to place the well being of foreign nationals above your own citizens.

@Pagan - Term limits caused them to not finish the job, not the people involved.

Interesting to see Rice speaking at BYU and yesterday the U announcing the Tuesday's with Morrie guy as their commencement speaker. What a disparity between the two institutions...

What a bunch of baloney! Her and the other Neo-Conservatives have no intention of leaving Afghanistan! The continual Wars & Nation Building will go on under the guise of War on Terror. We should be more concerned with protecting Our Own Borders & Building Our own Nation! When will We as a people Awake to Our Awful Situation???
SUPPORT THE TROOPS. Bring them Home!!!

'@Pagan - Term limits caused them to not finish the job, not the people involved.' - Johnny Triumph | 1:22 p.m.

9/11 happened in 2001. 7 months into George W. Bush's 1st presidency.

The US invaded Afghanistan on 10/07/2001.

George W. Bush left office in 01/20/2009.

That leaves almost 7 years to complete Afghanistan.

And yet, the call continues to go out for Obama to finish it in 2.

The claim of 'term limits' causing Bush not to finish Afghanistan is false. At this point, he had more than TRIPLE the time for Obama to get us out of Afghanistan.

And failed to do so.

Igualmente | 1:12 p.m. does bring up a good point. America has been in S. Korea since 1954.

Rice's call too 'complete' the job in Afghanistan is only grandstanding.

As 1) History shows us we will not.

and 2) She did not when she was part of the administration that factually started Afghanistan.

The American dream is dead to only those who are in the industrial military complex - Cheney, Bush, Rice ...
Things will never be like they were post WWII when the world was terrified that they too may get their civilians nuked by another twisted administration. (Even Eisenhower, a Republican, condemned the Truman administration for deliberately killing civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The good ol' days of America are gone leaving the smartest or most well-connected achieving the American dream. But if tax dollars were to be spent on R&D for say, green industry ... who knows?

Moderate | 1:17 p.m. Jan. 13, 2011
Salt Lake City, UT
"The United States has a job to help wounded states heal not just because democracy is morally right, but also because it's practical for the health of a global community" - Condaleezza Rice.

Really? The Republican position is that we must heal foreign nations, but healing American citizens (i.e. health care) is NOT morally right, and is NOT practical for the health of the our national community? What a twisted philosophy to place the well being of foreign nationals above your own citizens"

What a twisted line of reasoning. Before we even begin to discuss the false premise of your argument, what, exactly, is your point? BTW--is it morally right for anyone to be homeless? Jobless? Hungry? (Fill in the blank)? Give me your list of 'moral rights' and then, please,tell me how you propose to ensure that we all sh are equally in your 'moral rights'.

I wish the DNEWS wouldn't publish little 4-paragraph snipbits of articles, then go back and finish the whole two or three page story later in the day. The headline and body of this article are totally misleading.

Rice, while she did mention Afghanistan briefly, did not go into an hour-long speech about the merits of the war. That was not the purpose of her speech, and I wish that all who were NOT in attendance today would refrain from commenting until they've read a transcript of what she said.

Dr. Rice focused mostly on being optimistic in our goals and on working for a better, brighter America. As she said, those things that once seemed like impossibilities now in retrospect, seemed inevitable. To think that the USSR would fall and Obama would go to a NATO summit in Latvia, and to think that a black girl from Birmingham could become USSOS, they were impossibilities not too long ago. Progress is made from dreaming big and working hard. Her message was to have hope, find your passion, and go as far as you can go.

Please don't tarnish her remarks with pessimistic, hateful diatribe.

Gosh, how was Afghanistan "wounded"? And just how will we know that the "job" there has been finished? So far, we've put Kabul under the rule of some big-time thieves and done precious little for the rest of the country. I propose a sticker for the president's shaving mirror: "Afghanistan has NEVER been successfully occupied. They neither asked for, nor especially desire democracy. We went there to route bad guys from some caves, and they got away. When the Afghans want to change their country, they'll tell the guy peddling new bombs to go home and call Coca Cola to come take his place. And the country has no oil, either."

If Afghan troops entered the shores of the U.S. in a "peace keeping" mission in order to make America a more stable and free "democracy", I suppose I too could be compelled to consider hiding in caves and banding together with so-called terrorists.

Let me make it perfectly clear that I do not condone any form of violence, foreign or domestic except in the right to protect one's self in the pursuit of life, liberty and property.

If we are truly rooting out terrorism against U.S. interests, we would not only occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, we would have to maintain troops in virtually every country in the world including Canada, the UK and Russia.

Britt was quoted in the last paragraph of the article as saying "someone who is intelligent is leading".

The problem is, Britt, Rice is no longer leading and Obama and Hillary are!