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Rice pained by faulty Iraq intelligence

by Ian Swanson - 12/07/08 10:09 AM ET

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it pains her that the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, but she insisted the Middle East will be safer because of the six-year war.

Rice said she would “give anything” to be able to know precisely what the U.S. would find in Iraq. “But that isn’t the way these things work,” she told Fox’s Chris Wallace in an interview on his Sunday morning talk show.

{mosads}She said the administration, along with the rest of the world, thought Iraq had a more active weapons of mass destruction program.

“Across the world, people believed Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction,” she said. “While it’s fair to go back and say, ‘What might we have done differently?’ the truth of the matter is we don’t have that luxury.”

Asked by Wallace whether it pained her that the U.S. went to war under mistaken premises, Rice responded, “Of course.”

President Bush earlier this week said the biggest regret of his presidency is the poor intelligence leading up to the Iraq war.

Rice also said the U.S. did not have the “right structure” in place as it occupied and tried to rebuild Iraq immediately after the invasion. She refused to blame former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the problems, saying, “I take responsibility for that.” She also said it is “simply not true” that Rumsfeld did not accept her calls when he was at Defense and she was Bush’s national security adviser.

Rice repeatedly defended the Iraq war, saying Iraq would stand as a “bulwark” against Iran in the Middle East, which she said would be safe because of the military action.

Rice also defended the administration’s handling of Iraq during appearances on Sunday morning talk shows on ABC and CNN.

Rice said Pakistan needs to cooperate with India in the investigation of who was responsible for the terrorist attacks late last month in Mumbai that left more than 170 dead. She said the U.S. believes there is evidence of involvement of people from Pakistan.

“I think the important thing is that Pakistan act and that these people are brought to justice, and that any information that they may have is put to use in making sure that follow-up attacks don’t happen,” said Rice, who just returned from a trip to the region.

She said she made it clear the U.S. relationship with Pakistan would be affected by its handling of the situation.

India and Pakistan are nuclear rivals, and the Indian government is under pressure from its own citizens to respond to the attack. Rice said India “should not do anything that would make the situation worse.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Rice said she had spoken to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), whom President-elect Obama has picked as her successor. Rice called Clinton a “terrific choice.”

“Hillary Clinton is someone of intelligence and she’ll do a great job,” Rice said.

This story was updated at 10:30 a.m.

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