Sen. Bob Kerrey and N.S.A. Condoleezza Rice, 9/11 Commission Testimony
KERREY: …why didn’t we respond to the Cole?
RICE: Well, we…
KERREY: Why didn’t we swat that fly?
RICE: I believe that there’s a question of whether or not you respond in a tactical sense or whether you respond in a strategic sense; whether or not you decide that you’re going to respond to every attack with minimal use of military force and go after every — on a kind of tit-for-tat basis. By the way, in that memo, Dick Clarke talks about not doing this tit-for-tat, doing this on the time of our choosing. I’m aware, Mr. Kerrey, of a speech that you gave at that time that said that perhaps the best thing that we could do to respond to the Cole and to the memories was to do something about the threat of Saddam Hussein. That’s a strategic view…
(APPLAUSE)
And we took a strategic view. We didn’t take a tactical view. I mean, it was really — quite frankly, I was blown away when I read the speech, because it’s a brilliant speech. It talks about really…
(LAUGHTER)
… an asymmetric…
KERREY: I presume you read it in the last few days?
RICE: Oh no, I read it quite a bit before that. It’s an asymmetric approach. Now, you can decide that every time al Qaeda…
KERREY: So you’re saying that you didn’t have a military response against the Cole because of my speech?
RICE: I’m saying, I’m saying…
(LAUGHTER)
RICE: No.
bitch please.