Bush’s foreign policy "not good for the world": Madeleine Albright
US President George W. Bush’s foreign policy "is not good for America, not good for the world," Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state under Bill Clinton’s presidency, told French radio. In an interview with the Europe 1 station Albright heavily criticised the actions of the Republican leadership that replaced the Democratic administration she worked for, and notably the "chaos" that reigns in Iraq. "America is much stronger in a multilateral system, we must be on the same side, work with other people in the world. It shouldn’t be America versus the others," Albright said, speaking in French. "It’s difficult to be in France and criticise my government.
Oh yeah, it really hurts. I can sense the pain in your perfect Parisian accent.
But I’m doing so because Bush and the people working for him have a foreign policy that is not good for America, not good for the world," she said. Albright, who was US ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the first woman secretary of state in 1996, was in Paris to promote the French launch of her autobiography, "Madame Secretary: A Memoir". She said that UN chief Kofi Annan, who has come out against a US draft resolution on Iraq currently before the UN Security Council, was the "best secretary general since the creation" of the world body. She added that France was "a little bit right" to oppose Washington’s go-it-alone stance, but she warned: "It’s method is not always the best."
Moral posturing from a Clintonite... what do you expect?
On Iraq, Albright said "I fear that there really is chaos there. We don’t know what’s going to happen. One or two Americans a day are killed."
And this is how you help?
Bush’s insistence before and after the war that Saddam Hussein had ties to Osama bin Laden failed to convince her — "I didn’t really think that there was a link" — but, she said, the situation was getting to a point that Iraq was becoming a magnet for anti-US militants.
And our poor defenseless soldierlings might be in danger.
"Now there’s chaos, now all the terrorists are coming to kill an American." Even if ridding Iraq of its "terrible" leader had its merits, Albright added: "I don’t understand why the war happened now. I would have liked to see us concentrate on Afghanistan."
Some people will never understand. Man am I glad Gore isn’t in the White House! |