Fabulous analysis by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in today’s L.A. Times. Makes you wish she were still in that position, instead of the lying, apologist idiots who have followed her.

Albright points out that Bush continues to make the same mistake in foreign policy he does in virtually every other area: he oversimplifies and ignores important details that don’t fit his predetermined ideas.

For years, the president has acted as if Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein’s followers and Iran’s mullahs were parts of the same problem. Yet, in the 1980s, Hussein’s Iraq and Iran fought a brutal war. In the 1990s, Al Qaeda’s allies murdered a group of Iranian diplomats. For years, Osama bin Laden ridiculed Hussein, who persecuted Sunni and Shiite religious leaders alike. When Al Qaeda struck the U.S. on 9/11, Iran condemned the attacks and later participated constructively in talks on Afghanistan. The top leaders in the new Iraq — chosen in elections that George W. Bush called “a magic moment in the history of liberty” — are friends of Iran…

The administration is now divided between those who understand this complexity and those who do not….

Although this is not an administration known for taking advice, I offer three suggestions. The first is to understand that although we all want to “end tyranny in this world,” that is a fantasy unless we begin to solve hard problems…

Second, the Bush administration should disavow any plan for regime change in Iran — not because the regime should not be changed but because U.S. endorsement of that goal only makes it less likely…

Third, the administration must stop playing solitaire while Middle East and Persian Gulf leaders play poker…

In the long term, the future of the Middle East may well be determined by those in the region dedicated to the hard work of building democracy. I certainly hope so. But hope is not a policy.