Frankenstein's back, with a resounding endorsement of Barack Obama. I refer, of course, to the reemergence in public of former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Albright chastized Bush and defended Obama's statement that he would be happy to talk to Iran and other enemies of the United States. Albright blasted the current approach to the Middle East and made the anodyne point that it is just as important to converse with one's adversaries as it is to converse with one's friends.
The problem, of course, is not with talking with folks like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The problem is: who is going to do the talking? Certainly a President McCain has the experience and resolve to sit across the table with the bad guys and not fall for their deceptions or give in to their pressures. With an unseasoned guy like Obama, whose global experience may be confined to an occasional visit to the International House of Pancakes, who knows?
With Albright too it is credibility that becomes an issue. On May 11, 1996 this woman was asked by a television interviewer for "60 Minutes" whether she was troubled by the fact that Clinton-supported sanctions had resulted in the death of 500,000 Iraqi children. "It's a hard choice," she replied, "but we think it's worth it."
Leftists should keep Albright's response in mind when they wail about civilian casualties as a consequence of Bush's war in Iraq. Iraq Body Count keeps track of these casualties, and they are less than one-fifth the number of innocent civilians (mostly children) killed in the aftermath of sanctions. Sanctions had no effect on Saddam or his henchmen, who didn't miss a meal. Rather, they hurt the most vulnerable members of Iraqi society.
These facts remind us not only of the shortcomings of sanctions, which are not likely to work better with Iran than they did with Iraq. They also remind us that bad things in the world must be measured not against utopia but against what came before. Bush's Iraq war has resulted in a steep reduction of Iraqi deaths compared to the 300,000 people Saddam deposited in the mass graves and compared to the even greater number of deaths that Clinton's policies seem to have produced.
Still, I come back to Albright's original dismissal of half a million deaths with the calm affirmation: it's worth it. Can you recall another secretary of state making a remark more shockingly callous than Albright's? How this Frankenstein became the first female secretary of state remains a mystery.
And it is this same person who would presume to lecture us on what we should now be doing with Iran. I don't think we need more advice from Albright. Rather, what we need from her is an apology, followed by an overdue withdrawal from public life.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 14)
1. ATHEISM: A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE
http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
RICHARD DAWKINS at 2:41AM on Jun 29th 2008
2. DoubleD weren't you admonishing people for using name calling in your previous blog page? Calling Albright Frankenstein seems a discourtesy at the very least. She is a professional and you are a yellow blogger.
JefFlyingV at 2:50AM on Jun 29th 2008
3. "Evolution Facts page" is a retarded attempt to discredit science through religious thought. It is a perfect page to go to if you have limited intelligence, you can probably hang out there with DoubleD.
JefFlyingV at 2:54AM on Jun 29th 2008
4. I might be mistaken but didn't she regret some of what she said in an interview and later retract it? I seem to recall seeing something like that recently, maybe on The Colbert Report. Have to look it up.
You can't simply excuse Bush's mass murders in Iraq by pointing out that Clinton was also a mass murderer in Iraq. They are both guilt mass murderers as well as Bush's father too.
All of their policies along with Saddam's, Bin Laden's and many other leaders are vile and evil. Let's put them up on murder charges!
Peter at 3:34AM on Jun 29th 2008
5. Dinesh once again shows his true christian values by calling Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright childish names.
The fact is that she is a war criminal.
It's also possible that you Dinesh are also a war criminal depending on what it was you actually did at the White House during your stint there. Were your policies responsible for many deaths? Clearly Regan's were and you were there supporting his mass murderous policies, thus you are much more culpable than most American Citizens.
Peter at 3:36AM on Jun 29th 2008
6. I'm kind of surprised to see a guy who wouldn't look out of place on one of those "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" statues that they used to sell in novelty shops take a cheap shot at another person's appearance. Dartmouth must be very proud of him.
Ed W. at 3:50AM on Jun 29th 2008
7. I wonder if DD has any kids. It might not be too late for him to explain today's topic away as his kid filling in for him so he could take Father's Day off, like the fellow who wrote the comic strip "The Family Circle" used to do when I was a kid. The lad's musings just wound up getting online a bit late.
Surely Dinesh couldn't have written this, proofread it, had whoever does his editing for him go over it and still decided it was something that actually wanted to post here.
Ed W. at 4:36AM on Jun 29th 2008
8. Dinesh brings the same fresh, vacuity to this question as he does when he debates Christianity with rational agnostics. Why Frankenstein? It seems to me that he comes up short in the Christian Charity Dept., with his argumentum ad hominem attacks.
Darrel B Ford at 4:50AM on Jun 29th 2008
9. Din...
She was just another joke in the Clinton Admin.
The admin. which set our military back 100 years and gave the world a free pass to develop nukes and and for the world to realize they could just urinate
all over us because nothig would get done..
The real intellects know exactly why our country is where it is today.....(and its not the Bush admin..
jim at 6:35AM on Jun 29th 2008
10. I can't believe my eyes on what someone posted earlier:
"I seem to recall seeing something like that recently, maybe on The Colbert Report."
Your kidding me, right? A show on "Comedy Central" is used for fact finding?
I think I would prefer you get your information from Tila Tequila.
scott at 6:58AM on Jun 29th 2008
11. hmm, well as long as public reparations and apologies are the order of the day, I'll eagerly await the spectacle of Rumsfeld's head on an espalier long before bothering with Albright.
best,
mw
mikey1 at 8:44AM on Jun 29th 2008
12. ::DoubleD weren't you admonishing people for using name calling in your previous blog page? Calling Albright Frankenstein seems a discourtesy at the very least. She is a professional and you are a yellow blogger.
Jet, I would tend to agree with you if, as I thought might be the case when I first read the headline, he was making fun of something like her appearance. However, I give Dinesh, like I try to give everyone, the benefit of the doubt. I see in the following line what I think he views as the common characteristic by which he associates the two:
::Can you recall another secretary of state making a remark more shockingly callous than Albright's? How this Frankenstein became the first female secretary of state remains a mystery.
It appears he's criticizing her for callousness, which, if true, would not seem to me discourteous. Read this way, would it still seem discourteous to you?
Sincerely,
Jesse
Jesse at 8:55AM on Jun 29th 2008
13. I'm sorry "sousa, but remind me again when did Clinton kill half a million Iraqi children???? That seem to escape my studies findings.,
To defame Madeline Albright is so low. Even the Bush administration wouldn't go that low.
emanon at 8:57AM on Jun 29th 2008
14. 9. Din...
She was just another joke in the Clinton Admin.
The admin. which set our military back 100 years and gave the world a free pass to develop nukes and and for the world to realize they could just urinate
all over us because nothig would get done..
The real intellects know exactly why our country is where it is today.....(and its not the Bush admin....... jim at
Hey DD, explain it to this guy, that it was Reagan that looked the other way as Pakistan was bulding their first nuke to counter India's. That the same guy Khan, from Pakistan, dozen years later, helped the North Koreans develop their nukes. This being done under George W Bush's nose! Why don't you learn the facts ... rather than spouting what you would like to believe?
JimCO at 8:58AM on Jun 29th 2008
15. Dinesh, we can always dig up history of people making callous remarks ... George Bush making fun of Karla Faye Rucker for instance:
In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, a number of protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Karla Faye Tucker. "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask. Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them", he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with Tucker, though. He asked her real difficult questions like, 'What would you say to Governor Bush?'" "What was her answer?" I wonder. "'Please,'" Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "'don't kill me.'" I must look shocked — ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel — because he immediately stops smirking.
JimCO at 9:15AM on Jun 29th 2008