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By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer 10/26/2007

Albright said the next president must condemn the Bush administration's infringements on civil liberties through practices like torture and imprisonment without trial in order to "restore our credibility." It will be no easy task, she said.

"The next President of the United States is going to have a very, very hard presidency," she said. "President (George W.) Bush has made it very clear that the next president will have to deal with Iraq and a host of other issues."

Albright, 70, who also served as Ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at Colby College as part of the George J. Mitchell Distinguished International Lecture Series and the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement.

Albright said the war in Iraq will make the presidency a difficult task.

"I believe that Iraq is going to go down in history as the single biggest foreign policy disaster," she said. "That means it was worse than Vietnam."

In response to various questions from the audience after her speech, Albright remarked on various topics of global concern.

ON CHINA:

Albright pointed to China's rapidly-expanding economy and increasing military spending as reasons to consider the United States' relationship with the country the most important one of the 21st century.

"The best way to describe the relationship between the United States and China is to compare it to the relationship between a drug addict and a pusher," she said. "The difficulty is telling which is which."

Albright said a "one China" approach is still the best policy for dealing with the running dispute between China and Taiwan. It is not in the United States' best interest to make an enemy of China, she said.

"We would like to see a peaceful resolution to the China-Taiwan issue," she said.

ON BLACKWATER:

America must rein in the private security outfits that are running "out of control" in Iraq, Albright said, but stopped short of calling for the end of their use.

"Sometimes private contractors are hired," she said. "The problem is they can't be free agents."

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The United States' approach to nuclear non-proliferation has become outdated, and the country should set as a goal the elimination of all nuclear weapons, Albright said.

"The bargain has not been stuck by either side (those who had nuclear weapons and those who did not)," she said. "We have to rethink the non-proliferation regime."

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Albright praised Colby College for its efforts to promote civil rights for women and minorities, and provided an anecdote about her own education to illustrate the changing times.

When Albright enrolled roughly 50 years ago at Wellesley College, a women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Mass., she, like all the other students at the time, was forced to remove all her clothing above the waist and allow a photographer to take her picture. The purpose, she said, was purportedly to determine "whether we had a good understanding of body alignment and the ability to stand well," she said.

"They actually graded the pictures, and if we flunked, they made us do exercises," she said.

Albright said that the women resented this, since the implication was that the college was more interested in grooming them for domestic life than for careers. They always wondered what had happened to all the pictures, Albright said, "until a few years ago when they discovered them in a vault at Yale."

After her speech, a man from the audience asked her whether her husband was from Yale.

"No," Albright replied. "But you do see that I stand well -- Hillary Clinton has one too."

A call to Wellesley was not immediately returned Thursday evening.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com

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