Representing New York in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks gave presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a "somewhat different perspective" than her Democratic primary opponents on the continuing threat of terrorism, she said yesterday.

"I think they're out to get us every single day, and they are very clever and they bide their time," Clinton, a New York senator, said in an interview with Monitor editors and reporters. "I have no doubt that they are looking . . . for another spectacular attack, because they believe that makes the biggest impact."

But if Clinton separated herself from other Democrats, she also distinguished herself from Republican candidates, stressing the need for diplomacy to quell anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. "I guess I'm somewhere in between here," Clinton said. "I think we've got to do a lot more in reaching out and being smarter about how we connect with people than some Republicans do, but I think it's a very serious and real threat."

Clinton's comments suggested a foreign policy strategy focused on aggressive diplomacy coupled with enhanced intelligence-gathering and tough-on-terrorism rhetoric. A return to the diplomatic efforts of Bill Clinton's presidency would shore up the nation's standing in the Muslim world, potentially encouraging Muslims to reject the extremists in their midst, Clinton said.

"There will be a moment of opportunity" between next year's election and several months into the new president's term to signal a change in course, to inform the world that "the cowboy diplomacy is done with," Clinton said. The effort will require a combination of aid and outreach - building schools for Iraqi refugees in Jordan, sending eminent Americans to represent the nation - and frank discussion of what Clinton described as the Bush administration's bungles and "dismissive" attitude toward the rest of the world.

"I had an Arab diplomat say something to me that was chilling. He said, 'You know, for a superpower you have to be either liked, respected or feared, and right now you are none of those,' " Clinton said. "We've got to be able to reinstate where fear is appropriate: with our true adversaries, fine. We have to restore respect and we have to hope to be liked."

Nowhere was Clinton's foreign policy critique so bleak as her assessment of Iraq.

"I'm not sure there are any good outcomes," she said. "There are perhaps less bad options."

A continued U.S. presence in Iraq simply "keeps the cap on" violence, but won't heal that country's divisions, the "depth of feeling and the sense of, just, rejectionism they have for whoever their adversary is," she said.

Until Iraqis assume responsibility for security and political reconciliation, United States military involvement is futile, Clinton said. "If we withdraw at the end of this year, or next year, or five years from now - in the absence of the Iraqis themselves deciding that they'd rather be an intact country, they'd rather not be a pawn of Iran, they'd rather figure out how to have some political system that includes the Sunnis - there is nothing we can do militarily."

In 2002, Clinton voted to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Unlike other Democratic presidential candidates who cast the same vote, Clinton has refused to renounce her decision, arguing that the fault lies solely with Bush for launching the conflict.

U.S. troops ought to begin withdrawing immediately, Clinton said, although she acknowledged the "very difficult problems" ahead. Improvised explosive devices could harm troops traveling through southern Iraq into Kuwait. "Pitched battles" against Shiites in the south could also stymie the withdrawal, she said. And then there are the thousands of civilian Americans working in Iraq, and those Iraqis who have sided with the United States.

Withdrawal will also shift the political landscape in the region, as Iran is forced to side with factions in Iraq and changes "create space for a resurgence of Iraqi nationalism," she said.

As neighboring countries continue to absorb refugees from Iraq, Clinton warned that "Jordan can particularly be destabilized by this, which is very dangerous for the entire region."

Despite mounting opposition to the war - earlier this week, Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia said some troops should return home by year's end, to signal to the Iraqi government that the U.S. presence is not open-ended - Clinton predicted little change in the Bush administration's strategy.

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