New York Senator Hillary Clinton called for a broad reform of US foreign policy that would include better cooperation with other nations and bilateral talks with enemy nations. Criticizing President George W. Bush's foreign policy from Iraq to Afghanistan and North Korea to Iran, the wife of former president Bill Clinton called for a more internationalist approach to foreign policy in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based foreign policy think tank.
"First, and most obviously, we must by word and deed renew internationalism for a new century," said Clinton, a likely Democratic Party presidential candidate for the 2008 election.
"We did not face World War II alone, we did not face the Cold War alone, and we cannot face the global terrorist threat or other profound challenges alone either," she said.
Clinton also defended the idea of bilateral talks with nations that Washington has been avoiding, such as Iran and Cuba.
"We must value diplomacy as well as a strong military," Clinton continued. "We should not hesitate to engage in the world's most difficult conflicts on a diplomatic front."
"Direct negotiations are not a sign of weakness; they're a sign of leadership," she said.
Clinton blasted what she said was the Bush administration's "simplistic division of the world into good and evil. They refuse to talk to anyone on the evil side, as some have called that idealistic. I call it dangerously unrealistic."
Referring to the Bush administration's refusal to talk directly to North Korea she said: "Six years of policy with no carrots no sticks and only bad results."
Clinton bemoaned "the lost opportunities of the years since September 11," when people around the world rallied to offer support for the United States following the 2001 terrorist attacks. "Five years later much of the world wonders what America is now," she said.
Clinton is far ahead of her Republican Party rival in her November 7 senate re-election bid.
Concerning Iraq, Clinton blasted the administration's policy, and said the best policy instead would progressively redeploy US troops in the region, call for a regional conference to help discuss options and advocate for the creation of an organization aiming at guaranteeing a division of oil income among all Iraqis.
"In an increasingly interdependent world," Clinton said, "it is in our interest to stand for human rights, to promote religious freedom, democracy, women's rights, social justice and economic empowerment."
"But reality is, we cannot force others, nations and people, to accept those values. We have to support those who embrace them and lead by example," she said.
