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defeat terrorism - only dealing with the sources of terrorism can.
This January, I took a trip of my own where I saw first hand the importance of applying this lesson of hope and perseverance to the challenges we face today. I saw emerging democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq struggling to overcome terrorism and sectarian strife as they work to create a better future. I saw Israel’s democracy persevere despite the incapacitation of its leader. I saw high-tech companies thriving in India in the midst of great poverty. In Pakistan, where tensions between a secular leader and a restless Islamist movement run high, thanks to the response of the world I saw 9,000 children emerge from the devastation of a massive earthquake go to school for the first time.
I saw open societies and closed societies, rich and poor, high tech and low tech, secular and religious. Everywhere I turned, there were disconnects. So many people desperately trying to connect to the rest of the world to make a better future, while so many others desperately cling to the past, doing everything in their power to prevent connection to anything unfamiliar.
These disconnects map the fault lines of today’s conflict and future conflicts. It is in these fault lines that radical Islamists recruit their followers by playing to stereotypes of western civilization. But it is here that the critical challenges of our time is defined: winning the struggle against terror and stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Frankly, we should start by better understanding what we are up against. The war on terror – as it is so often called – even exploited — is really a far bigger challenge than the words suggest. Terror is only a tactic. The bigger struggle we are engaged in is much more than a military operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it started long before 9/11. It is, above all, a much more complicated undertaking than some have made it sound. In fact, our long-term security is today as it has always been, dependent on addressing the multi-layered fabric of life which motivates those who use terror.
The truth is that we are caught in the middle of a decades-old internal struggle in the Islamic World. It is fundamentally a war within Islam for the heart and soul of Islam, stretching from Morocco east to Indonesia. In regions where the mosque remains the only respected alternative to autocratic state structures, there is no credible secular alternative. And no center of moral authority has emerged to stop those who would murder in the name of Islam.
So ultimately, this is a struggle for the transformation of the Greater Middle East into a region that is no longer isolated from the global economy, no longer dependent on despotism for stability, no longer fearful of freedom, and no longer content to feed restive and rising populations of unemployed young people a diet of illusions, excuses, and dead end government jobs.
To succeed, we must have a strategy that does everything possible to increase the internal demand for transformation in the Greater Middle East, especially its Arab core. This means we must become significantly more engaged in leveraging transformation – we must wage a more effective war of ideas and ideologies. But make no mistake, in the end, this war must be fought and won within the Islamic world. So we have a huge stake in finding partners in the Arab world who are willing not only to lead the transformation of the Middle East, but to reestablish the broad and unchallenged moral authority needed to isolate and defeat terrorists.
We must also, finally, liberate not only ourselves, but the Middle East itself from the tyranny of dependence on petroleum, which has frustrated every impulse towards modernization of the region, while giving its regimes the resources to hold onto power. The international community of democratic nations cannot afford to continue funding both sides of the war on terror. We must end the empire of oil. And these efforts have to be truly international — all linked to the rapid emergence of new energy technologies, in order to ensure that growing economies like China and India don’t just replace us as the enablers of Middle East despots.
These are daunting challenges. To wage this war with any credibility in the Muslim world, we must work to address the impression that we have done too little to achieve real progress in bringing peace to the Middle East. The victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections makes the prospect of establishing a democratic Palestine at peace with Israel seem even more distant. But we must not lose sight of the fact that lasting peace there is key to denying Islamic extremists a recruiting tool and denying repressive regimes an excuse not to address problems at home.
History is replete with examples of conflicts that at times seemed endless and intractable. But history also teaches us that if the desire for peace stays strong, it is always possible to prevail. There are lessons of perseverance and determination for peace to be learned from your experience here in Northern Ireland. You know better than anyone how long and arduous this process can be. The citizens of Northern Ireland have proven that progress is possible for those with the courage to seize it.
We have also learned from experience that successfully meeting great challenges like winning the war on terror requires more than just one nation changing its policies. Great American presidents from Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy understood that success requires a community of nations working together, drawing strength from shared sacrifice and steadfast commitment to our shared ideals. We must once again forge great alliances of common purpose that increase our collective strength and amplify our collective voice, so that we defeat any form of tyranny in a battle of ideas. That means strengthening and reforming not weakening and walking away from the ability of the U.N. to play a forceful role in troubled places like Iraq and Darfur.
Literally, the west must reclaim its moral leadership. To be successful in this battle of ideas, we must undermine the jihadist propaganda about the west. All allied nations have to pay greater attention to how our words and deeds are understood in the Middle East, because our good intentions are doubted by the very people the terrorists seek to turn against us. And these efforts must be bolstered with tangible investments, not just in foreign aid, but in the Arab people themselves in the form of schools, hospitals and other institutions that give people a voice and a stake in civil society.
All of the allies, from Europe to the Americas to Asia, must work harder to strengthen our commitment and enhance our efforts to integrate the Middle East into the global economy. This is the only way to stop economic regression, spur investment beyond the oil industry, and spark trade, investment and growth in the region. It’s the only way to turn young minds and energy away from terror.
In addition, all our allies must join together to counter the teaching of hatred in Madrassas throughout the Middle East. We must press regimes more consistently and effectively to teach tolerance in schools and broaden educational opportunities throughout the region. And we must work with moderate Muslims, especially clerics, to permanently discredit the belief that the murder of innocents can be justified in the name of God, race, or nation.
This will be difficult, but it can be done. There is a serious fight going on right now for the soul of Islam. As is so often the case, an extremist minority has captured the attention of the world. But despite what you see on the news, this isn’t a one-sided fight. In 2004 in Amman, Jordan, senior Islamic leaders and leading moderate statesmen like King Abdullah of Jordan came together to preach religious cooperation and non-violence. In July of 2005, moderate Muslim clerics again came together in Amman and issued a formal fatwa, or religious edict, against terror.
That may not sound like much to us, but the terrorists apparently took this threat from moderate Muslims very seriously. In the weeks and months after the 2005 Amman fatwa, Muslims were attacked from Amman itself to Sharm el Sheik to Pakistan. In fact, the overwhelming majority of recent terrorist victims have been Muslims. And the voices of moderation responded again this past January at the Hajj pilgrimage, where Saudi Arabia’s leading cleric condemned the use of terrorism in the name of Islam.
Obviously, the struggle for the future of Islam isn’t a fight the west can win alone — but we can offer critical support as we spread our democratic message. To do that, democratic values and openness should be championed not simply as western values but as the universal values that they are. Democracy spreads with patient but firm determination, led by individuals of courage who dream of a better day for their country. Viktor Yushchenko had that dream in Ukraine. Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. And Lech Walesa in Poland. We need to create the conditions where this dream can become a reality in the Arab world.
Above all, we must remember, democratization is not a crusade. If it is seen as the result of an army marching through Muslim lands it will fail. Perhaps more importantly, that’s not the way democracy works. Creating a democracy requires more than an election, as the defeat of the ruling Fatah party by Hamas in the Palestinian elections further illustrates. The challenge requires building transparent, accountable and functioning democratic institutions that will enable democratically elected governments to provide basic goods and services to their people.
In the end, these steps can open a region that for too long has been closed to opportunity and progress. And they will help to modernize governments and create societies that can better meet the needs of their citizens, respond to their grievances, and provide a more hopeful alternative to the dark ideology of terror. That would be a real battle of ideas—a battle I believe we can win if free nations fight together.
Taking these steps is the key to effectively addressing the root causes of terror, and beginning on a path toward long term victory. But terrorism is not the only threat to our security. We must also do a better job stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and preventing the transfer of those weapons to terrorists.
It was a notable moment in the 2004 presidential campaign when President Bush and I agreed that terrorists armed with nuclear weapons posed the greatest security threat of the 21st Century. To meet this challenge, we are going to have to be strong—but also smart. The most obvious example of this potentially devastating nexus is Iran, where the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism has defied the world by moving forward with its nuclear program. A nuclear armed Iran clearly poses an unacceptable threat to global security. To make sure that never happens, America must lead an unrelenting collective effort that matches the urgency of the threat.
To be smart, however, we must also correct the inherent flaw in the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty that allows nations such as Iran to advance their illicit nuclear weapons capability under the cover of permitted civilian nuclear programs. The fact is that once a country can create its own nuclear fuel, it can probably build a nuclear weapon. To prevent this, America and other nuclear powers must establish international control of the nuclear fuel cycle by creating a reliable, affordable, and accessible bank of nuclear fuel. This will allow us to provide reactor fuel to states that conform to non-proliferation agreements while keeping that fuel under strict international safeguards.
America can also provide more determined leadership in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons by setting the right example ourselves. By advancing negotiations on a global fissile material cut-off treaty; foreswearing the development of new nuclear weapons; and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, we can send the right message to the world about our commitment to creating a more effective global non-proliferation regime.
To meet these great challenges of terrorism and proliferation, we must reinvigorate alliances so we can marshal the collective will and resources of America and our allies. The United States has been at its best when working together with other countries in an international system of global reach and power that links the security and welfare of all free nations around the world. It was this system that won the Cold War and made possible the incredible progress of the last 60 years. It is an approach that restores traditions that have passed the test of time — and that is the message I take home with me after traveling the world from India to Pakistan to Iraq to Israel.
So as John Hume once said, “The challenge now is to grasp and shape history: to show that past grievances and injustices can give way to a new generosity of spirit and action.” We have a long way to go before we have met the great challenges of the 21st Century. But with inspired leadership and unwavering commitment, I believe that together we can create a world in which wars are rare; a world in which America and her allies are protected by alliances forged in common interest and purpose; and a world in which order is preserved by the will of democratic nations who understand that all ships rise on a rising tide. And as we have learned from John, even though it may sometimes feel like we should have our heads examined, we must never stop believing that day will come.
Thank you all for coming tonight.
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