Albright pans iron fist approach to Iraq

Denver Post ^ | 12/23/03 | Steve Lipshe

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

ASPEN - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright took the Bush administration to task Monday night for its unilateral approach to Iraq, from the run-up to war to the current reconstruction effort, saying the United States needs to maintain its foreign allegiances to successfully fight the war on terror.

"We have to make sure that we work with our allies and that we treat them with respect, and that we understand the importance of the United Nations and that we want to work through NATO and that we think diplomacy is a useful tool,' she said, suggesting that such steps would reflect a "change of approach by this administration.'

Albright, 66, spoke before a sellout crowd of 350 people at the Aspen Institute, a pre-eminent think- tank and global public-policy organization that routinely hosts high- profile speakers. She is a trustee of the institute and, besides being in Aspen on a family vacation, is touring to promote her memoir, "Madam Secretary.' Advertisement

A former ambassador to the U.N., Albright has been outspoken in her criticism of President Bush for sidestepping the international organization in going to war in March. The former secretary of state under President Clinton has questioned whether the United States actually needed to invade at the time it did, with sanctions and enforcement of the no-fly zone apparently keeping Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in check.

"I didn't think our work was anywhere near done in Afghanistan, and I thought we had to keep our eye on the ball about that,' she said. "I thought that we had Saddam Hussein in a strategic box. I didn't think he was an imminent threat to the United States.'

Although Albright said she was convinced that Iraq, at one point, possessed the weapons of mass destruction that Bush cited as justification for war, she doesn't know whether Hussein moved them or destroyed them.

In a private interview with The Denver Post before the speech - she at one time worked in the newspaper's library - Albright conceded that Iraq and the rest of the world are better off with Hussein's capture but that the U.S. approach needs to include far more diplomacy and far less bravado.

"There are certainly times that this administration is seeing more and more the value (of diplomacy) because reality sets in, and you can't solve everything militarily. But a lot is in the way the president talks, the way Rumsfeld talks,' she said, referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Albright, the first female secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman in the history of American government, was known for wearing brooches that were said to reflect her attitude: A snake for discussing Hussein, an eagle for some other foreign officials. In Aspen, she sported a large, gilded angel on her purple suit and donned a matching necklace of large amethyst stones.

She noted that both as U.N. ambassador and as secretary of state, she forged tight alliances with her female counterparts but disputed a suggestion made recently by Ted Turner that the world would be better off if it were controlled entirely by women.

"Whoever says that has forgotten high school. The truth is, there is nothing nastier than girls in high school,' Albright said, eliciting laughter.

[Guillermo]

Oh, I see what you're talking about now.

There was no resolution after that, which what was demanded by lefties.

[Puppage]

There was no resolution after that, which what was demanded by lefties.

As well there shouldn't have been. I dare you to cross this line...ok, I dare you to cross THIS line....

You get the idea.

Merry Christmas.

Pete