Albright addresses Richmond community

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at the Camp Concert Hall on Saturday that she has never seen such a difficult set of circumstances in the world than the one the next president will deal with.

"I've spent my whole life in national security policy," she said. "I'm 71 years old, and I don't think I've ever seen the world in such a mess. And that's the diplomatic term."

Albright, who served under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001, described to a full audience what she called "umbrella issues" that were key questions and challenges for the next administration, including repairing nuclear non-proliferation, mitigating the negative effects of globalization and dealing with the new global financial crisis.

She also talked at length about President George W. Bush's actions post-Sept. 11, 2001, invading first Afghanistan then Iraq. Albright said that Bush had acted properly after Sept. 11 because the nation was attacked and it was an act of war.

"The problem was that he took his eye off the ball," she said, "and the war in Afghanistan has gotten worse and worse. The Taliban is resurgent, and the President Karzai, he's a nice man, but he's more like the mayor of Kabul than the leader of a whole country."

The unintended consequences of the war in Iraq will add up to an international catastrophe, Albright said.

"Iraq is going to go down as the greatest foreign policy disaster in U.S. history," Albright said. "In terms of unintended consequences I mean to say that I think Iran has done the best in Iraq. They have now become a major regional power, and we don't know what all their intentions are, and we don't know much about what's going on."

Albright said that though she believed democracy was the best form of government for everyone, the Bush administration had tried to force Iraq into a democratic system without Iraqi popular support.

"You can support democracy and promote democracy," she said, "but you cannot impose democracy. That is an oxymoron. I hope very much that the day will come that we can say that Iraq is a real democracy. But I have yet to meet a world leader anywhere who looks at Iraq and says, "I want my country to look just like that."

The war in Iraq not only turned Iran into a regional power, but it fired anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East, she said.

"It has really undermined our moral authority," she said. "When I was growing up when you mentioned the United States, people would think about Omaha beach or Iwo Jima.

"Now when people mention the United States, people think about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. And the significance of that is that we are not in a position to talk about our values and how we see America because of what Iraq has done to damage our reputation."

With the world economy in flux and countries more connected than ever, Albright said groups that were already economically depressed were suffering ever-harsher realities.

"In absolute numbers," she said, "there are fewer poor people in the world, but the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.

"While there is no direct line between poverty and terrorism, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to realize that people in societies in various countries abroad who are completely marginalized or feel that the system is not giving them anything, are more likely to be recruited by those who don't like us."

Albright said America needed a change in foreign policy direction.

"We need a moral foreign policy based on our own values, but not a moralistic foreign policy where we are lecturing everybody all the time," she said. "People want America's leadership: they have just found America's leadership wanting."

Albright came to Richmond as a representative of the Barack Obama campaign. Albright said Obama would be open to ideas and suggestions in his foreign policy.

"I want a president who is confident -- not a president who is certain," she said. "A confident president is someone who wants to hear lots of opinions and ideas and who welcomes them [. . .] then makes up his own mind based on what he has heard. A certain president doesn't even know what he doesn't know."

Albright addressed a concern that Obama's policy of bilateral talks with Iran without preconditions was naive.

"I think what Barack Obama offers is sophistication in understanding what has to happen in terms of dealing with those you don't like on the world stage," she said. "I happen to believe that you should talk to those that you don't like.

"You can't say I will not talk to you until you give up everything, which is what it is they want to talk about. I can also tell you that people I sat across from like Milosevic and Kim Jong-Il did not think we were having particularly pleasant conversations ... but that's what dialoge is all about."

Dotty Vye attended the speech and said she came because she was an Obama fan and remembered Albright fondly from her time as secretary of state.

"It was just an honor to hear her: she was so sharp," Vye said.

Vye said that students should take advantage of opportunities to see important historical figures such as Albright.

"I remember when I was in college, I passed up an opportunity to see Eleanor Roosevelt because I was studying for an exam," she said. "I aced the exam, but I never got to meet the first lady."