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Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Saturday it will take more than the stepping down of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a political shift in Congress to hasten a successful exit from the Iraq war.
"We'll have to see. I think it's not just a matter of changing the secretary of defense, but it's changing policies," she told The Salt Lake Tribune before a book signing at Sundance Resort.
"And the question is how they're going to do that," she added, "and whether they are going to be looking for ways to change direction."
Albright was in Utah this weekend in part to discuss her book, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and the World, which details the effect of religion on U.S. foreign policy and the Bush administration's reliance on religion and the Christian right to help shape his presidency.
The book is especially critical of the way Bush has conducted foreign affairs since Sept. 11, 2001. Albright continued her condemnation in her talk Saturday, including his breaking off relations with North Korea right after Albright made strides with leader Kim Jong Il on weapons negotiations.
"This administration has a policy of not talking to people it thinks are evil," she said. "You make peace with your enemies, not your friends."
Albright also will be attending a Sundance summit on global warming through Tuesday with more than 30 U.S. mayors, including Salt Lake City's Rocky Anderson.
The conference is hosted by actor and Sundance founder Robert Redford.
He expressed optimism in the newly shifted political winds and maintains that bipartisan cooperation will be a step in the right direction for the war and the U.S. economy.
"You've seen the consequence of what happens when you have one-party rule in both houses, particularly if that view that controls both houses is as narrow and ideological as this administration that's in power now," he told The Tribune on Saturday.
"The immediate impact," he said, "is going to be stopping something horrible that was sliding off the edge."
Albright said the swing in Congress gives her hope for better decisions in Iraq.
But Albright said she still is concerned about the state of U.S. foreign policy and the unwillingness to make peace.
"People ask me if I'm an optimist or a pessimist," she said during her talk. "And I tell them I'm an optimist, but I worry a lot."