Paddlin' Madeleine

Amazingly dumb editorial on our Middle East policy in the LA Times (via the Financial Times) from Madeleine Albright. If it weren't condescending and pointless, it wouldn't be anything.

You remember Ms. Albright, former Secretary of State. When asked how she felt about U.S. sanctions against Iraq killing half a million kids, rather than challenge the premise of the question, she said "we think the price is worth it." This is someone we should listen to?

Let me give you a taste of her "argument":

For years, the president has acted as if Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein's followers and Iran's mullahs were parts of the same problem. Yet, in the 1980s, Hussein's Iraq and Iran fought a brutal war.

Ms. Albright, this may surprise to you, but the president and his people know all about that war. They even understand that while both Iran and Iraq are problems, they're not the same one.

There's literally nothing in the article that those who support the Iraq war (only part of a multi-layered approach to Middle East foreign policy) don't already understand quite well (and perhaps reject). But that doesn't stop her from lecturing everyone on the obvious.

Thank goodness such people no longer run our foreign policy. Let's hope they never do again.

PS There were four guest editorials in the Times, all highly critical of the Bush administration. That must be a record.