Condoleezza Rice: Mistakes in Iraq? May 13, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/05/03/Condoleezza_Rice_Perspectives_on_Peace_and_War

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration was not prepared for the collapse of Iraq. "We were way too focused on Baghdad." "In my heart, I was worried," admits Rice. "I thought that if the surge did not work, then we had played our last card."

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In her first return appearance in Washington since leaving the State Department, Condoleezza Rice reflects on her experiences in the Middle East, and her commitment to the education of children as a force against misunderstanding, terror, and war.

As National Security Advisor to a war-time president and then as Secretary of State for the United States, Dr. Rice has pursued peace while defending war. To honor the memory of the great warrior and peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin, former Secretary Rice joins Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, in a far-ranging discussion on how to think morally and responsibly about the ideal of peace and the reality of war and on how to teach these perspectives in our classrooms. - Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

Dr. Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State on January 26, 2005. Prior to this, she was the assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, since January, 2001. In June 1999, she completed a six-year tenure as Stanford University's Provost, during which she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer.

Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974, her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975, and her PhD from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. Rice is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C.