Madeline Albright, Gaza, The World And The President Elect

Last night I sat in the 92nd Street Y's Kaufman Hall and watched Dan Rather interview former Secretary of State and pants suit wearer extraordinaire Madeline Albright. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I witnessed was a very intriguing dialogue between Rather and Albright focused almost entirely on the Middle East and the US' role in the world. Much of what Albright had to say regarding the current situation in Gaza was level headed, pragmatic, and not overtly pro-Israel. When Rather introduced the topic, asking her to describe the relationship between Israel and Palestine, she answered simply that it was "a mess." Over the course of the evening however, her pro-Israel leanings began to show through, as she exclaimed that Israel has no friends in the UN other than the US and "maybe Uzbekistan." Too much to ask for a little criticism of Israeli's killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians? I mean what does it take to go beyond politics and recognize brutality for what it is.

That being said, Albright went on to describe to the likely all Jewish crowd with a mean age of about 74 years old the different international issues that Prez elect Obama will have to deal with. It turns out the world is completely fucked. There is a "rolling genocide" in Darfur, a nuclear failed state in Pakistan, two "hot wars" in Iraq and Pakistan, a narco state in northern Mexico, an enigmatic Iranian state funding Hamas and other similar organizations, and the Knicks still suck. But, all is not lost. Obama is still the man, and there is no one that the world would rather see deal with these issues from the Oval Office. Don't believe me? Peep this