Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Sunday urged President Bush to “cede some” of the political, humanitarian and economic control of Iraq to the United Nations. Interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” she said doing so would help “mend diplomatic fences” with key allies.
“WHAT HAS to happen is to mend diplomatic fences, make very clear that we need the other countries and figure out a way for there to continue to be U.S. military control over Iraq, but cede some of the political control, humanitarian and economic, to the United Nations,” said Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration.
She urged the president, when he speaks to the U.N. general assembly this week, to not let hawks in the administration sway his judgment.
“I think he has to, while being strong, be conciliatory. I think that there may be those who are advising him to go in and say, you know, ‘You people have to do this with us or stand up with us, or you’re out of the game.’
“I think instead he ought to reach out and say, ‘This is an international problem. This is the time we’re all being tested. I want a strong United Nations resolution. I understand where we are. This is the business of all of us,’ and not kind of some of the statements that have been made which are, you know, ‘We don’t really need you, but if you want to come along with us, OK.’”
Albright noted U.N. precedent where military control in similar situations was retained by a lead country. “They did it in Haiti, it was done for Australia on Timor, and there are ways to do this,” she said.
Asked whether the Clinton administration could have done more to stop Osama bin Laden before he launched the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Albright cited the U.S. strikes against his operations as well as the fact that bin Laden remained elusive, even after the Bush administration went after him in Afghanistan.
“I have examined my soul, as well as a lot of the papers,” she said. “and I feel very comfortable that we did everything we could to stop terrorism when we were in office, to the extent that we had the intelligence.”