Condoleeza Rice spilled the beans in Congressional testimony: there really is (as we always suspected) a White House plan to redesign the Middle East! Capitol Hill liberals like Barbara Boxer squawk about the administration's "unbelievable rewriting of history" in changing the justification for the Iraq invasion after the fact. But Republicans are unrepentant: its a new world war, deal with it. From the Washington Times, Oct. 20:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that it was always the Bush administration's intent to redesign the Middle East after the September 11 attacks, which exposed a "deep malignancy growing" in the region, and that the Iraq war was part of that plan.

Miss Rice, in her first testimony on Capitol Hill in eight months, refused to outline benchmarks for reducing the U.S. troop levels in Iraq.

Instead, she offered a short-term strategy to stabilize the country, including the creation of civil-military teams in key provinces, but that plan was met with skepticism by both Republican and Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee.

"Even if withdrawal timelines are deemed unwise because they might provide a strategic advantage to the insurgency, the American people need to more fully understand the basis upon which our troops are likely to come home," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican and committee chairman.

"We have to level with the American people," said Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio Republican. "This is another world war."

Which of course raises the question of which world war is this?