U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Interview on NBC's Meet the Press With Tim Russert

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Crawford, Texas
August 6, 2006

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QUESTION: The President referred to the conflict in the Middle East as "a moment of opportunity." And another Bush -- former Bush Administration official, Richard Haass, had this to say. He is now the head of the Council on Foreign Relations and Mr. Haass made these comments. He laughed at the President's public optimism. "An opportunity," Haass said with an incredulous tone, "Lord spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once in a lifetime chance?" These are former Bush Administration officials.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes, and I know Richard well and am very fond of him. I've known him for a long time. But it's short-sighted, extremely short-sighted analysis, and I would think that if people looked back on the history of how things have changed, they will recognize that opportunity very often comes out of crisis. You know, Tim, the Chinese have a character for crisis. It's wei ji, danger and opportunity. I think they have it right. Every crisis has within it danger, but every crisis also has within it opportunity. And this President is determined to seize opportunities to bring about a different kind of Middle East. Anyone who wants to argue that the Middle East that has been left behind was one that was stable, that was good for the people of Iraq with 300,000 Iraqis in mass graves, that was good for the people of the Palestinian territories with Yasser Arafat stealing them blind, that was good for the Lebanese people with Syria occupying the country and stoking the kind of sectarianism and the kind of conditions that have led to a state within a state that is Hezbollah, I think you'll have to make an argument that that was a good Middle East that should have been left untouched.

Yes, it is a time of tremendous turbulence in the Middle East. It's a time of change in the Middle East. And the United States has an obligation now to try and, on the basis of the work that has been done, construct and help those in the Middle East construct a better Middle East. There's no doubt about that.

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2006/740

Released on August 6, 2006