Speaking to students and faculty at the University of Florida Levin College of Law on Wednesday, Madeline Albright had this to say with regards to the war in Iraq:

“I have said that I’m afraid that Iraq is going to go down in history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy,” Albright said. “Now that’s quite a statement, because it means I think it’s worse than Vietnam - not in the number of Americans who died or Vietnamese versus Iraqis, but in terms of those unintended consequences. And the biggest unintended consequence in Iraq is Iran. I think one might say that Iran has actually won the war in Iraq.”

While she’s been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, Albright conceded there are now “no good options” in the war-torn country.

“The American forces are both the solution and the problem,” she said. “They are like fly paper that attracts everybody who hates us.”

James Taranto reminds us of what Madeline Albright said back in 1996:

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.

The above statement had been quoted numerous times in the Arab press, and rightfully so. Publicly announcing that the death of a half million children is “worth it”, could in all likelihood be considered the greatest disaster in American foreign policy. Osama bin Laden had used pictures of Iraqi babies wasting away from malnutrition and lack of medicine in his recruitment videos, and this statement was no doubt in the back of some of the recruit’s minds when they joined him.

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Features, Iraq, Politics, Terrorism