Worthy of the sort of keen analysis that CENTCOM Commander Gen. David Petraeus and Professor Stephen M. Walt provided here, in which they express the opinion that the solution to the conflicts in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan lies in a "two-state solution" in Israel, Condoleeza Rice explains what went wrong in Iraq, and why.   From AP:

HONG KONG – Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she would "many times over liberate" Iraq again, but she regretted the Bush administration failed to work closer with Iraqis to rebuild the war-torn country.

Rice, speaking at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said she believed history would eventually vindicate many of the decisions made during the presidency of George W. Bush.

"I would many times over liberate Iraq again from Saddam Hussein," Rice said. "I think he was a danger to the Middle East."

Notice she did NOT say that he was an imminent danger to the U.S. or U.K.  Saddam Hussein WAS a danger: to Iran, to Saudi Arabia, and her other Muslim neighbors.  Those neighbors have paid no price to have Saddam Hussein removed;  and look at the benefits enjoyed by Iran in particular by his removal.  In contrast, the Coalition has paid heavily, in blood and lucre, to remove Saddam and to try to rebuild Iraqi society, and have gained the emnity not only of the Muslim world, but the entire world.

However, she suggested the U.S. government failed to understand "how broken Iraq was as a society" and should have focused its rebuilding efforts outside of Baghdad, the capital.

So, here are the lessons learned from her years of dealing with Iraq, and her time of reflection after leaving office:

"We tried to rebuild Iraq from Baghdad out, and we really should have rebuilt Iraq from outside Baghdad in," she said.

"We should have worked with the tribes, worked in the provinces," she said, adding that smaller projects should have been favored over big ones.

"That's something that in retrospect that we finally got right" several years after the 2003 invasion. "And it's one reason I think Iraq has a chance."

Stunning.  Breathtakingly stunning.