Letter: Rice unqualified to be national security adviser

Friday, April 9, 2004 | 5:34 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

April 10 - 11, 2004

Condoleezza Rice testified publicly before the 9-11 commission and she adopted the "Sgt. Schultz" defense. Schultz, of "Hogan's Heroes" TV fame, was famous for the line, "I know nothing." In her televised testimony, there were constant references to "structural" problems. The FBI didn't do this and I didn't see that or the CIA information was vague.

These responses highlight the problem of having an academic in charge of a senior position like national security adviser. She exhibits neither the requisite managerial skills nor the basic street smarts to discern just what is happening until it is too late. At this level of government, this is entirely unacceptable.

In the private sector, corporate America, when senior management is presented with news that revenues are off, those responsible are grilled for details. If the answers are not clear, further immediate action is taken to clarify what is the source of the problem. Clearly, at the level of national security adviser, there was not this urgency and this interaction never took place prior to 9-11.

Now comes the statement that Rice attributed to President Bush, that he was "tired of swatting flies." Well, now that he missed hitting the first 19, he has moved on to Iraq. To date, and at a cost of hundreds of American lives, thousands of casualties and the alienation of our allies, we have swatted thousands more "flies."

Let us hope and pray that those we missed do not mutate into something far more dangerous than just a fly.

RICHARD RYCHTARIK