|
Madeline Albright Speaks....
When Madeleine Albright became Secretary of State, the Czech-born exile was the first woman to serve in that post. On the eve of the publication of her memoir, Madame Secretary (Miramax; 592 pages)âwhich covers everything from discovering belatedly that her family was Jewish to her years in the Clinton Administrationâshe spoke with TIMEâs J.F.O. McAllister.Unlike other memoirs, Madame Secretary has hardly a hint of score settling. If you didnât want to set the record straight, why did you write it? "The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. Youâre trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that arenât very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product. Any differences we had [in the Clinton Administration] were so minimal compared to what I see in the Bush Administration, I thought: Itâs just not worth it." ("...and letâs face it, I want to be a player in the next Democratic administration - from my lips to Godâs ears - and I donât want to pi*s anybody off too badly." ) Did you neglect the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and leave it for the Bush Administration to clean up? "President Clinton focused on terrorism from the start." ("...whenever the body count was too high to ignore..." ) "The CIA set up a special bin Laden division, and the President authorized the use of lethal force against him." ("...of course, we never did actually authorize anybody to FIND him..." ) "We struck his camp in 1998 after the embassy bombings, and we came close." ("...which, of course, only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades..." ) "President Bush has been in Afghanistan with 8,000 troops, and they still havenât found him." ("...the fact that he probably wasnât IN Afghanistan within about 30 seconds of the towers going down is Bushâs fault, too." ) Should the U.S. have invaded Iraq? "I always believed Saddam has the kind of record that justifies taking action." ("...and if thereâd been a Gore Administration, weâd have had another eight years to diddle about deciding what kind of action." ) "I didnât see Saddam as an imminent threat," ("...which is why we whacked his backside only when it would take the heat off Bubba..." ) "which is where I parted company with them ..." (I mean, if heâd have done it to distract the people from a scandal, okay, but geeze..." ) "I think the whole thing has been mishandled." ("...after all, whatâs the point of having an Army if you wonât use it...um..whoops...didnât say that...that was about bosnia, and that was good, got it?" ) Has the war made the problem of terrorism better or worse? "The Administration immediately tied Sept. 11 to Saddam. They said, basically, that Saddam and Iraq were a hotbed of terrorism." ("...at the absolute worst, they were ony a medium warm bed of terrorism. Nowhere near as bad as those obnoxious Israelis." ) "While I had many criticisms of Saddam, thatâs not the way I saw it. But now Iraq is in fact a breeding ground for terrorists." ("...which makes them an endangered species, and therefore you canât touch âem" ) What should the U.S. do next? "Frankly, if there was a President Gore, we wouldnât be in this particular mess." ("...actually weâd be in a worse one, because President Gore would have been under incredible pressure to either glass the place or let âem go - but it wouldnât have been a mess where weâre actually making some kind of headway against these guys." ) "But we are, and we cannot fail." ("...holy crap, did I say something reasonable? Strike that." ) "I very much hope there will be a U.N. resolution that makes clear the U.S. has military command but that would set up a U.N. high representative to coordinate the political and humanitarian things the U.N. does very well." ("...and as long as Iâm dreaming, Iâd like a pony." ) Bushâs foreign policy started as "Anything But Clinton" in almost every areaâthe Middle East, North Korea, China. Now events have pushed it back much closer to your approach. Do you ever succumb to schadenfreude? "No, Iâm much too kind and generous a person." ("...BWHAHAHAHA....no, seriously though, Iâd rather be doing the tarantella on Colinâs desk right and screaming, âNANNY NANNY BOO BOO, YOU SCREWED UP!!!â " ) Has Bush been right to sideline Yasser Arafat in the Middle East peace process? "I think thatâs been a mistake." ("...shoulda shot that baby-wipe lovinâ olâ perv from the word go." ) "Now, that doesnât mean itâs much fun to talk to him. I donât think heâs a force for good, but heâs part of the story." ("...and thank God the Israelis havenât written him out yet, because otherwise thereâd be a whole lot of terrorist-sympathising idiots out of a job." ) Is Sharon as big an obstacle to making peace? "I am willing to believe that he can do a Nixon in China. The U.S. has to play the role of making sure that both sides really do what theyâre supposed to do on the road map. But it requires the constant attention of the Administration at a very high level. I may be wrong, but I donât see that happening." ("...I mean for cryinâ out loud, whatâs more important - a couple of thousand dead Americans or Yasser living long enough to hand power over to the next despot? Con-tin-ouity is the IMPORTANT thing here." ) What did being a woman mean to your term as secretary of state? "I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring womenâs issues to the center of our foreign policy." ("...and donât you say anything about women in Afghanistan, they were perfectly happy." ) Youâre known for wearing pins that make political statements. How many do you own? "I honestly donât knowâprobably about a hundred. I think Iâve revived the costume-jewelry industry." ("...this nice âBush Su*sâ one is my favorite..." ) Mike Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2003-09-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=18696 |