condolloosseerr'ss bc pre-speech

Rice lauds BC critics' right to speak
Defends Iraq policy on eve of address
By Catherine Elton, Globe Correspondent May 22, 2006

On the eve of her controversial commencement speech at Boston College, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice celebrated her critics' right to object to her presence. But she defended the Bush administration's actions in Iraq and challenged her critics' assertions that the Iraq war clashed with Catholic morals.
''Christians are of course on both sides of the argument about the use of force -- when it is indeed just to use force and when it is not," she said at a news conference yesterday.
''We have overthrown a dictator who brutalized his population (NO, we haven't, king george is STILL on the throne). . . . Sometimes you have to get rid of really, really bad regimes," (yeah, WE KNOW WE KNOW, but he JUST WON'T GO AWAY) she said.
Boston College's announcement on May 1 that Rice would speak at graduation today and would receive an honorary law degree has divided the Jesuit college, and has underscored deep divisions between liberal and conservative Catholics.
Over the past weeks, people on both sides of the debate have written public letters, have started petitions and countering petitions, and have accused one another of selectively invoking Catholic doctrine. One adjunct professor of English, Steve Almond, quit over the invitation......