"I said a thousand times that I regret that statement. Sanctions never included food and medicine..."
We can quote stuff all day. In the end, we can never understand what it's like to be in someone's shoes when having to make decisions that affect so many people.
I am not surprised you didn't find a quote which says she regrets the action, and not the statement regarding that action. Politicians gonna do politics.
Just like today with sanctions on Russia, even though there is almost no proof that sanctions have ever produced anything but suffering for the least privileged, it's trivial to make that an us vs them game to bring masses in.
One photo of Madeline Albright that sticks in my mind is her coming out of a Washington building holding hands with Jesse Helms, one of the most conservative southern Republican senators of the 1990s. This was in the aftermath of a new wave of vocal and angry Republican congressmen, led by Newt Gingrich and keyed up by talk radio, winning the House in 1994.
Both Albright and Helms were smiling like little kids. The friendship was genuine.
From what I recall, she made the effort to reach out to him and break the ice and build that relationship. It yielded dividends many times over for the State Department and I suspect for Mr. Helms as well.
It really sounds like her sole uncontroversial accomplishment, unless you're of the "More woman prison guards!" persuasion, was a 400-pound leg press. That's impressive enough for a spry youth, so hey, good job. Probably part of why she lived to 84. Being the first of a demographic to participate in a broken system doesn't impress me.
So glad we had someone to break the glass barrier proving that female secretaries of state can be just as psychopathic as male ones (a la Kissinger):
"We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima," Stahl said. "And, you know, is the price worth it?"
"I think that is a very hard choice," Albright answered, "but the price, we think, the price is worth it."
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 35.3 ms ] thread- I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.
We can quote stuff all day. In the end, we can never understand what it's like to be in someone's shoes when having to make decisions that affect so many people.
Just like today with sanctions on Russia, even though there is almost no proof that sanctions have ever produced anything but suffering for the least privileged, it's trivial to make that an us vs them game to bring masses in.
Of course there are other options, there always are. Duh.
Both Albright and Helms were smiling like little kids. The friendship was genuine.
From what I recall, she made the effort to reach out to him and break the ice and build that relationship. It yielded dividends many times over for the State Department and I suspect for Mr. Helms as well.