On the confirmation hearing for the United States Secretary of State, a Democrat from California raised the sharpest question to Rice on her role in Iraq War, “I personally believe, this is my personal view, that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth.” p. 252.

This surely reached its goal of angering Rice. Yet, there are two things in the statement that I want to point out. First is loyalty, one outstanding feature of Rice. Rice has an unquestioned 100% loyalty to her boss, whoever that might be. Good for the boss!  She has the political acument to sense the intention of her boss and makes it her mission to help her boss achieve the goal.  On loyalty, I would tell my children not to give loyalty to any person but to what you believe is truth.

Second is truth. We “respect for the truth” only when we know what the truth is and we care to stand by truth. When Colin Powell gave Bush the sharpest criticism of Iraq War and questioned if Bush fully understood the huge implication of the war (p. 186), Rice was lost and could not follow Powel. She simply has no sense of what truth is.  For her, truth lies in whatever the boss says.

We don’t even need to wait for history to be the final judge on the war because we can see the consequence now and see the role of each person involved in this large-scaled event. Isn’t that enough for us parents to ponder upon what we should tell our children on loyalty and truth?