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Albright laments rash 'exuberance' over Iraq
Financial Times | Last Updated: September 26 2002 20:37 | James Harding
in Washington
Madeleine Albright, the US secretary of state under Bill Clinton, on
Thursday accused some
members of the Bush administration of an "irrational exuberance for this
conflict" with Iraq.
Speaking before the Senate committee on foreign relations, Ms Albright
said: "It is not an
American trait to want war.
"And it is not a sign of sound leadership to understate the risks of war
or to offer constantly
shifting rationales - as this administration has - for undertaking such
a venture," Ms Albright
said.
Her comments followed a speech earlier this week by Al Gore, the
unsuccessful
Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2000, who criticised the Bush
administration for
its handling of the war on terror and warned against a unilateral
assault on Iraq.
Taken together, the criticism offers a rallying call for what has so far
been generally muted
Democrat opposition to Mr Bush's approach to Iraq.
The president on Thursday met 17 members of the US House of
Representatives to
encourage support for a tough resolution from Congress authorising the
use of force to
oust Saddam Hussein.
Ms Albright on Thursday urged Congress to give Mr Bush that authority,
but she also called
for a more restrictive resolution.
She noted that the language presented by the White House would authorise
the use of
force unrelated to any specific countries, threats, American interests
or periods of time.
Ms Albright warned against pursuing Iraq when the "more urgent threat"
remains al-Qaeda
and other terrorist groups.
"This is not the time or place for short attention spans," she said.
She also warned that the US could face a "no-win choice" in the
post-Saddam Hussein era.
"A prolonged US military occupation of the country that served as the
cultural capital of
Islam during that civilisation's Golden Age. . . would hand a new
organising tool to
anti-American terrorists worldwide."
On the other hand, a quick withdrawal could plunge the country into
factionalism and civil
war.
"It is naive to think that a peaceful and democratic Iraq will
automatically emerge from the
ashes of our invasion," Ms Albright said.
Also appearing before the Senate foreign relations committee was Henry
Kissinger, the
former secretary of state.
Mr Kissinger also urged Congress to give the president the authority to
use military force,
but he raised concerns about the Bush administration's commitment to the
principle of
pre-emptive military action.
"It cannot be either the American national interest or the world's
interest to develop
principles that grant every nation an unfettered right of pre-emption
against its own definition
of threats to its security," Mr Kissinger said.
He also called on the administration, in conjunction with other great
powers, to establish a
new international order to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
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