So he met with people who don't agree with him, for a change, and they all agreed we should not pull out of Iraq. Oh.
I'd like to hear Albright's comments.
President Bush pauses for a photograph on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006, with present and former Secretaries of State and Defense in the Oval Office at the White House. Bush met with the bipartisan group to discuss the war in Iraq. From left is former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State James Baker, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State George Schultz, former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Bush Takes Suggestions on IraqBy William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; 12:57 PM
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Bush, seated at a long table between Rice and Vice President Cheney, took no questions from reporters. But a few of the former secretaries answered queries about the meeting outside the White House, saying the group emphasized a need for the president to clearly explain his policies to the public.
"It was a unique meeting," said Frank C. Carlucci, 75, who served as defense secretary under President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s. "It was all very respectful, but I think people didn't hesitate to express candid views." Among those who made "very strong points," he said, were former defense secretary Melvin R. Laird, 83, who served under President Richard M. Nixon, and former secretaries of state George P. Shultz, 85, a Reagan appointee, and Madeleine K. Albright, 68, who served under President Bill Clinton.
Albright, who was the first woman secretary of state and now chairs the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, has complained publicly that the war in Iraq has cost the United States credibility around the world after the rationale for the 2003 U.S. invasion -- a threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction -- turned out to be based on faulty intelligence. She has also opposed Bush's appointment of John R. Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a post she formerly held under Clinton.
"I think we all agreed that we want the president to succeed in his policies," Carlucci said in an interview with CNN. "Whether people agreed with the decision to go in
or not, nobody really feels that we ought to fail at this point. We need to keep pushing ahead. There was nobody in the meeting that urged us to engage in an immediate pullout."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010500254.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/iraq