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MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ: I have long been struck by a quote that I read that you made in the
Atlantic Monthly that referred to this trip you took to Rwanda post-genocide in which
you said -- you swore to yourself that if you ever faced such a crisis again, you would
come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.
I wonder if you could tell us what coming down on the side of dramatic action meant
to you.
SUSAN RICE: Our greatest failure in the U.S. government -- and I think, frankly, more broadly
-- was not that we ever took a decision not to act. It was that we never confronted the
question. We never actually had, until it was too late, a policy discussion at the deputies
level or the principals level about whether or not the U.S. or the international community
should intervene in -- as the genocide unfolded.
There are times when, one needs to speak the truth. And that is what I wrote one my card
that I deposited at the exhibit when asked, what will you do -- what do you commit to
do? I commit to speaking the truth, whether as a private citizen or as a public servant.
And doing so loudly and emphatically. Now that I am at that principals table, as opposed
to a junior staffer, I think it's my responsibility and that of my colleagues and those in leadership
responsibilities and in Congress and the public and the media to demand answers to those questions
and not allow them to be unasked and unanswered.