CONDI VS. CHOICE:

Rice may add earthquake stop to trip (ANNE GEARAN, October 10, 2005, AP)

The United States won't trade democratic reforms for security and stability in strategically important former Soviet states, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday as she embarked on a trip to Central Asia and Afghanistan. She also said she might inspect earthquake damage in Pakistan. [...]

On her trip, she will celebrate successful elections in Afghanistan and in Kyrgyzstan, her first stop, but has no scheduled meetings with opposition political figures there or in Kazakhstan or Tajikistan.

The Central Asia region is important to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and the war on terror but is troubled by lingering authoritarianism, corruption and economic stagnation, leaving the United States with a difficult balancing act.

"What we have not been willing to do is to make a choice between our objectives in terms of the immediate concerns about military access and our objectives in terms of democracy," Rice told reporters en route. "We see there is an inextricable link between our strategic goals of democratization and fighting the war on terrorism."

And she's the house Realist these days.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 10, 2005 8:10 PM