Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks about the nation's security at Union Station in Washington, March 29, 2006.
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I do. I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what's evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We're less sure about what is good. There's sort of good, good enough, could be better — but absolute good is a little harder to define. By making it a Manichean choice between good and evil we make it difficult for tolerant people to agree with what our policy is.
What's the single biggest thing the President could do to counter Islamic extremism?
I see major parts of the Muslim world who do not condone or support terror, violence or extremism. There has to be a way that the President can indicate that change that comes from within religion itself is the best way to go and not to try to impose our value systems on them. One of the reasons I'm so troubled by the war in Iraq is that it's imposing our system and making it much more complicated for those within Islam to adopt a moderate view and evolve that religion even further so that the violent elements are not the ones seen by rest of the world.
Did your religious background shape your decisions as Secretary of State?
As you know I have a somewhat confused religious background. I certainly do believe in God. And I certainly used to ask God for a lot, though I didn't say 'thank you' enough. But I think it basically shaped my view of morality, and I thought morality needed to play a central role in American foreign policy. And to the extent that one can equate the way I see God with morality, then I think it played a role. But I'm not presenting myself here as a theologian or somebody who is not interested mostly in solving problems.
Speaking of problems, you say in the book that the Administration has botched the fight against al-Qaeda and made a huge strategic mistake with the war in Iraq. If that's true, shouldn't someone be held accountable [for that]? Should the President fire, say, the Secretary of Defense?
I have resisted calling for people to be fired. Having been a person in one of those jobs, you realize the person you're responsible to is the President. But I think there needs to be more general accountability. The President needs to be more responsive to what happened here. One thing I find very difficult to deal with is that there's no admission of mistakes, of changing course. It's more, let's stick with the course we're on because we're doing the right thing. That's what is troubling — the lack of accountability by the Administration as a whole.
You describe in the book the meeting about Iraq that you and other former Secretaries of State and Defense had with President Bush earlier this year. Have you heard from anyone in the Administration since then?
I've had dinner with Secretary Rice and saw Steve Hadley at a different function. But as to the specifics of that meeting, no.
At dinner with Secretary Rice, did you share your criticisms of the war in Iraq?
She was very much aware of my feelings on Iraq already. One of the reasons I thought it was essential for me to say something in the meeting with the President is that I actually have said a lot of these things publicly. Everyobdy is already aware of my feelings and I thought it was intellectually dishonest not to say to his face what I say to people like you and on television.
Your former boss Zbigniew Brzezinski has said that it's time to start preparing for withdrawal and even to set a deadline for a pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq. Do you think we should set a deadline?
I've been saying for some time that 2006 needs to be a year of transition and that there needs to be a strategic redeployment of U.S. forces. I personally had not been for setting a specific deadline, due to my own experience in Bosnia, where we set a deadline and couldn't meet it and found ourselves in an uncomfortable position. I prefer to look at benchmarks and things that need to happen. I would hope that with the appointment of a new Prime Minister who is hopefully going to put together some kind of unity government, that it will allow the Iraqis to be in a position to say "Alright, you've done what you can, it's time to leave." It's not a matter of us setting an artificial deadline but one that's based on the fact that government has found itself in a position where it can run the country.