Madeleine Albright’s new book, The Mighty & The Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs, is well-written, easy to read and full of the former U.S. Secretary of State’s legendary sense of humor. Even though it is packed with complex diplomatic and religious concepts at each turn, it was incredibly insightful. It explains these complex issues in plain English, yet I never felt I was being lectured or talked down to. Ms. Albright takes pains to link each event she discusses to the past and present events, describing in sometimes chilling ways how the costly mistakes of the administrations she worked in could have been avoided with more knowledge of Islam and the political situations of Middle Eastern countries. I felt as if I were sitting in her class at Georgetown University; I learned a great deal about the Muslim faith and the diplomatic strategies of the Carter and Clinton Administrations.
The book is divided into three sections: God, Liberty, Country; Cross, Crescent, Star; and Final Reflections. Each section on its own, and the book as a whole, presents one of the best modern discussions of the necessity to not keep religion walled off from diplomacy. It was a lesson we should have learned in 1979 with Iran. It is a lesson we are now forced to relearn with Al Qaeda and bin Laden.
“Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the hearts…and in the forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies…The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.”
This quote leapt out at me as I read it. You may be tempted, if you have not read this book, to take this quote out of context and assume that Ms. Albright is taking the opportunity to rail against the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration. However, she pulled this quote from history. It was originally said by Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who did not speak up against war often, feeling it diverted his attention away from the Civil Rights Movement. He finally did speak up, saying that “each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the hearts of the Vietnamese” and chastising the Congress and President for squandering precious resources which could fight poverty and for requiring African-Americans to bear an unfair share of the risks.
My first thought as I read these insightful words is that “there is nothing new under the sun,” as King Solomon once stated in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is indeed true that we are often doomed to repeat history when we do not learn its lessons.
Ms. Albright clearly lays out the argument that Americans, especially Americans in the State Department and federal government, need to learn more about Islam, its religious and cultural mores and its style of government and politics. We need to understand that U.S. history goes back a mere 400 years, a timeframe that men and women in the Middle East consider a blink of an eye. They are still nursing battle scars from the Crusades. Many Muslims still think and speak of Saladin, and his triumphs against Richard the Lionheart in 1187, as if it were yesterday.
However, perhaps the most important thing I learned from this book is to never stop learning about people who are different from me. To learn about and attempt to understand another’s culture, politics and religion is the beginning of peace. “If you’re dealing with people who profess faith, they must believe there is a Creator; if they believe that, they should agree that God created everyone. This takes them from the specific to the universal. Once they acknowledge their common humanity, it becomes harder to kill each other,” Albright quotes President Clinton.
Once we see others, even Muslims, maybe especially Muslims, as created in the image of God, it should make us stop and think how to “love them as we love ourselves.” I strongly recommend every thinking person in the United States read this book.
