In a sweeping foreign policy address, Senator Clinton yesterday chided the Bush administration for dividing the world into good and evil and said America’s political relationship with the Iraqi government has reached the point of “complete absurdity.”

Mrs. Clinton told a high-powered crowd — which included President Clinton’s national security advisor, Sandy Berger, and a former United Nations ambassador, Richard Holbrooke — that Iraq needs to take more responsibility for its own security and that America needs to send more troops to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban.

The junior senator, who is widely viewed as the leading Democratic candidate for president in 2008, said “waging a preemptive war based on faulty, fanciful scenarios and bluster” and choosing isolation over diplomacy has hurt, not helped, national security.

“The lost opportunities of the years since September 11 are the stuff of tragedy,” she said.

The speech hit on several themes Mrs. Clinton has been discussing on the campaign trail, but was also a glimpse into her overarching thinking on foreign policy and the policy notes she might strike if she runs for president.

In addition to stressing the need for Democrats and Republicans to come together to deal with terrorism, she outlined her views on North Korea and Iran and took questions that ranged from local state politics to the conflict between Sudan and Chad.

She criticized President Bush and his inner circle for brushing off the importance of America maintaining the respect of other nations, saying the country needs “to return to patient diplomacy backed by military force.”

“We did not face World War II alone, we did not face the Cold War alone, and we cannot face the global terrorist threats or other profound challenges alone either,” she said.

The speech came on a day North Korea said it would rejoin talks on nuclear disarmament, which the former first lady cited as good news.

It also came on the day that John Edwards, a former senator of North Carolina who is another likely candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, discussed his foreign policy positions at the Asia Society, just blocks from where Mrs. Clinton spoke.

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Edwards did not take his criticisms of Mr. Bush as far as Mrs. Clinton, but said the next president would have to restore America’s international reputation.

Mrs. Clinton’s Republican challenger in the Senate race, John Spencer, who she is expected to handily beat in next week’s midterm election, said her speech was designed to boost her presidential ambitions.

“She’s ripping down an American administration in time of war because she wants to be president,” he said during a telephone interview. “That’s what this is all about and if the people don’t see that they’re not looking.”

He noted that Mrs. Clinton voted for the Iraq war and argued that “all wars are a mess.” He also criticized her proposal to redeploy troops. She says that America has been held “hostage” by the political wrangling in that country.

Mrs. Clinton criticized the Bush administration for tapping other countries to deal with the Iranian regime and allowing extremists to take power from a more moderate regime. She reiterated that America cannot allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.

On North Korea, she said America until this point has relied too much on China to keep the country in check. She said America should have engaged in direct talks with the communist regime. She said Kim Jong Il should have to choose between nuclear weapons and international aid. The senator seems to be walking the line between harsh attacks on the president and ensuring that she stays in the center of the political spectrum, a move that could be crucial if she decides to run for president.

For example, on the United Nations, she acknowledged the body’s problems, but said it behooves America to use the U.N. to work with China, Russia, and other countries on improving international relations. She also criticized America’s increased reliance on foreign financing, saying and it increased the national debt.

“The people who promised less government have instead given us the largest and least competent government we’ve ever had,” she said.

Mr. Holbrooke praised Mrs. Clinton after the speech. “If she runs, she’ll have my support,” he said.