Gibberish with Rice

From the July 28, 2005 interview of Sec of State Rice on NewsHour.

JIM LEHRER: In a general way, though, is it conceivable that the United States, in the interest of bowing out and letting the Iraqi people have their way, you may have to swallow a constitution that, whatever it is, has to do with rights of women or whatever, it has some things in it that go against the grain of the United States?

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: Well, we're going to stand for the principles that we're standing for around the world, and most especially in Iraq, where America has sacrificed and -- sacrificed lives and treasure. And so, of course, we're going to stand and stand strongly for the rights of women. We're making that very clear to the Iraqi government.

Yes, we're taking a stand and making it clear. Then Rice pauses for breath and continues:

RICE: But again, if the Iraqis themselves, who want to live in a society in which there are -- in which citizens of both male and female and where they recognize that the trend in the world is not to move away from women's rights but to move in the other direction.

Huh? Apparently, the United States considers the "liberation" of only half the Iraq population acceptable. The oppression of women is not a deal-killer. Not even to the Madame Secretary.

So, if there were a sizable minority of ethnic blacks in Iraq, would Rice consider their systematic religous- and government-sanctioned oppression acceptable too?