Madeleine Albright, 1st female U.S. secretary of state, dies

Rest in peace, Madame Secretary.

She was a powerhouse and we as a nation were lucky to have her.

“Condolences” offered to the grieving family and friends of those lost to the decisions of those appointed as leaders.

Albright was secretary of state when the US rarely got involved in wars and when it did, it won them.

Some people resent that.

I’ll never forget what she said on 60 Minutes (popular investigative news show in the US).

“We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima,” Stahl said. “And, you know, is the price worth it?”

“I think that is a very hard choice,” Albright answered, “but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

She'll always be remembered in infamy for her cruel and callous remark, absent from this eulogistic article, apropos of the value she placed on the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children. How could anyone forget?

I’ll never forget what she said on 60 Minutes (popular investigative news show in the US).

“We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima,” Stahl said. “And, you know, is the price worth it?”

“I think that is a very hard choice,” Albright answered, “but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

Obviously it's worth when you don't actually care for the people who perished, and you prioritize world domination over all else.

"The price was worth it" is something she will forever be infamous for. Maybe it is something she regretted later on, people can always change, but never heard anything to that effect.

Starving half a million children is never worth it.

Starving half a million children is never worth it.

That figure was provided by the Saddam regime, which grossly manipulated the data. Subsequent, unbiased surveys found the number drastically lower or even a complete fabrication.

Saddam spent around 2 billion dollars on his grand palaces and offering the Palestinian Intafada around a billion dollars during that same period. If there was a crisis of starvation and medicine, he and his govt had the funds to prevent it. They would have chosen not to.

"Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5717930/

Even worse than her callous comments on children, her failure with her boss, Bill "Rwanda" Clinton, to prevent an African Holocaust will ensure their names will live in infamy. All the belated apologies can't bring back the victims of their foreign policy.

DEEPEST CONDOLENCES.

As others have pointed out, her crimes in the cause of the neo-con and neo-liberal American Empire are legion. The Lord will now deal with her as He sees fit.

I doubt whether the families of the 500,000 Iraqi children killed care. You know, the 500,000 deaths which Albright said was 'worth it'. It's true what they say - only the good die young, all 500,000 of them.

As the ambassador, Albright infamously defended the US-led campaign of sanctions against Iraq, telling Lesley Stahl of ‘60 Minutes’ in May 1996 that “We think the price is worth it” when asked about half a million children that reportedly died as a result.

says it all.

Regarding the "price is worth it" remark, she did later apologize. Not all politicians do that.

"What I said was totally stupid. ... I regret it. I have apologized for it I can’t tell you how many times."

I checked out JeffLee’s article and the study is eye opening. From the abstract alone: “Since 2003, however, several more surveys dealing with child mortality have been undertaken. Their results show no sign of a huge and enduring rise in the under-5 death rate starting in 1991. It is therefore clear that Saddam Hussein’s government successfully manipulated the 1999 survey in order to convey a very false impression—something that is surely deserving of greater recognition.”

If anyone here is interested in getting their eyeballs on the facts underlying the “500,000” number, it’s worth the read. Unless you’re all afraid you might not like what you find.

There’s a lot you can accuse the Administration of, but starving half a million Iraqi children isn’t one of them.

My biggest question is, why didn’t Albright call the interviewer out at the time? She certainly should have known the numbers were suspect.