CONDOLEEZA RICE

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (5/3/09)

In speaking to a group of students on her return to Stanford University concerning the Bush Administration's policies justifying and practicing torture, Condoleeza Rice, the former Secretary of State, said, "I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to that agency."

In defending himself before an Israeli Court justifying his engagement in the Holocaust, Adolph Eichmann said, "I never did anything, great or small, without obtaining in advance express instructions from Adolf Hitler or any of my superiors."

This is, of course, the old "the devil made me do it" argument, making the culprit not responsible or, more accurately, irresponsible. The argument is that an immoral act is justified and, therefore, moral if someone else in authority, like the President, ordered it.

Condoleeza Rice did not even use the evasive mea culpa favored by most politicians when they say, "I take full responsibility." They don't say, "I am guilty" when caught in illegal acts, but rather "I take full responsibility" which means nothing at all.

No, she didn't even say, "I am not responsible," much less "guilty" for the torture of human beings. She passed it off to superiors.

Her bureaucratic language assumes guilt. Condoleeza Rice's justifying obfuscation implies that she's as guilty as hell and that she knew along with Hamlet that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Condoleeza Rice knew there was something rotten in the White House and that she was a part of that rot, else she wouldn't say she was just following orders.