USA TODAY International Edition
Albright’s warning for Trump: Think Syria response through
She says military force can’t be the only option
NEW YORK – Former secretary of State Madeleine Albright says President Trump’s declaration that he was ready to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria emboldened Syrian leader Bashar Assad to launch a chemical weapons attack on his people, a development that now has the United States poised to strike Syria in retaliation.
In an interview Tuesday with USA TODAY about her new book, Fascism:
A Warning, Albright called Trump’s decision almost exactly a year ago to bomb a Syrian airfield after a chemical attack “very appropriate.”
But he undercut that message with his comments last week at a White House news conference when he said it was time “to bring those troops home,” she said.
“There’s this theory having some unpredictability is a useful diplomatic tool,” Albright said. “But unpredictable unpredictability constantly is very difficult for people who are trying to follow what we’re doing.”
Her book, published Tuesday by Har-
argues that terrorism, sectarian conflicts, anti-immigrant fervor and the manipulation of social media are contributing to a rise in fascism and an erosion of democracy around the globe. That includes nations that are American allies — such as Hungary, Poland and Turkey — and in the United States itself.
Albright has a special sensitivity to the warning signs, she says, because when she was a child the rise of Nazis and then Communists forced her family to flee their native Czechoslovakia.
Albright, 80, served on President Carter’s National Security Council staff. President Clinton first appointed her as ambassador to the United Nations, then as the first female secretary of State. She was an energetic supporter of Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Does she agree with Trump’s fiercest critics that the president himself is a fascist? “No, and I don’t call him a fascist,” Albright said.
But she did go on to use more diplomatic language: “I think he is the most undemocratic president that I’ve seen, and I’m very troubled by some of the things he’s been doing.”
But Albright said she is inclined to think one of Trump’s biggest national security gambles, a proposed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, could be worth the risk. Albright became the highest-ranking sitting U.S. leader ever to travel to Pyongyang when she met with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.
“I personally believe in talks,” Albright said. “The risks are very large, but I do think that if this is turned down, there will be some kind of consequence to that, especially since our allies, the South Koreans, have been kind of the intermediary on it.”
So it’s better to go ahead? Yes, Albright said, but “very much with guard rails and a way the president does not do this by himself.”
On Syria, although she has supported military action — and has criticized former president Barack Obama for failing to act more decisively there — Albright said the Trump administration needs to devise a broader strategy than the milper,
“There’s this theory having some unpredictability is a useful diplomatic tool. But unpredictable unpredictability constantly is very difficult for people who are trying to follow what we’re doing.” Madeleine Albright
itary action alone that the White House is now contemplating.
“Just doing it to punish isn’t enough if we don’t have a strategy,” she said.
She said the administration hasn’t gone through the fundamental steps she requires for students in the course she teaches at Georgetown University on national security decision-making.
“President Trump would flunk my course, because none of those things do we know,” she said. “What is the objective? What is the strategy? What are the pros and cons of it? And what are the unintended consequences?”