September
10, 2002, 9:10 a.m. Not
Just America’s War
No one is safe.
he
first anniversary of the 9/11 attack is a fitting time to take stock of
where America is and where we want to go. We are going to defeat those
who hate our freedom, our tolerance, our way of life, our faith in equality
and opportunity. This vision is shared by hundreds of millions of people
across the planet. This is not just America's war. We are not alone.
In this war, Western
ideology, not just America, is our enemy's target. Regardless of what
appeasers, isolationists, and anti-globalists may say, America is going
to accomplish this together with others who are under attack — regardless
of what fanatics, haters, and their fellow travelers may do.
We went through battles
like this twice during the 20th century. Both the Nazis and the Communists
were enemies of freedom. Our struggle was lengthy, but we prevailed because
we knew that the safety of the U.S. and its allies rested on our ability
to stand up to our enemies.
The militant ideology
of radical Islam does not distinguish between Washington and Paris, or
between London and Rome. Failing to recognize our commonality and act
in concert will only strengthen our enemy. The cost will be high, for
our enemy is ruthless, as the families of those who perished in the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as the families of those who were
murdered in Pakistan, Caspiisk, and Tel-Aviv can tell you.
This battle too will require the destruction of our enemy — their
manpower, their infrastructure, their sources of funding, and their refuges
in states or regimes that harbor them. It will also require neutralizing
the ideological infrastructure that supports them — the religious
schools (madrassas), the radical mullahs, the venom-spewing, government-controlled
mosques and the media.
Our resolve is as strong today as it was one year ago: We will protect
ourselves — and the world — from future attacks, and ultimately
defeat the attackers. America cannot and will not sit still. And those
who value freedom — freedom for men and women, freedom of religion,
freedom of political expression, freedom of movement, and freedom of economic
activity, will join us.
Yet, senior experts
and high-level politicians in Europe have repeatedly said that this is
"not our war. It is America's War. We were not attacked." These
Europeans criticize the U.S. response, objecting to America's unilateralism,
America's Texan bravado.
What these Europeans
forget is that al Qaeda planned to crash planes into the Eiffel Tower,
the houses of the British parliament, and other targets in Europe. They
plotted the assassination of the Pope. And they used the infrastructure
in London and Hamburg, as well as safe houses in Spain and elsewhere in
Europe to pursue their goals. Clearly, it is not just America under attack.
This vicious strain of radical Islam does not discriminate in its hatred.
We are all at risk.
Russian analysts also levy similar complaints, and go on to accuse the
U.S. of nefarious motives. They claim that "our" war is about
oil, about a new sphere of influence for the U.S. in the Middle East and
Central Asia, about deterring China.
The U.S. already
can buy all of the oil it needs: from the Middle East, from Latin America,
from Africa, from Russia, and from the Caspian. Critics forget that U.S.
imports most of its foreign oil from Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, and other
non-Arab OPEC states. Less than one-third of U.S. petroleum imports are
coming from the Persian Gulf. If anything, al Qaeda, in its attempt to
sweep through the Arab world and change the regimes in Saudi Arabia and
elsewhere, is the true party in pursuit of oil. And with that oil cash
flow, bin Laden could inflict damage on the U.S. and our allies on a previously
unimaginable scale.
As for those who claim that the U.S. desires to form a sphere of influence
in Central Asia I ask, "What is there to influence?" There is
no oil in Kyrgyzstan — the oil is thousands of kilometers to the
East — in the Caspian. If the U.S. wanted military bases to protect
potential oil flows, it should have put one on the Absheron peninsula
in the Caspian, not in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, and not in Tajikistan. And as
for China, it is just too far away. The Chinese military is concentrated
in the southeastern regions facing Taiwan and the South China Sea —
not exactly a stone's throw away from Kyrgyzstan.
The fact is, that the U.S., Russia, and Europe are cooperating in fighting
terrorism. Achievements have been made in resupplying the Northern Alliance,
bringing peace to Afghanistan, tracking terrorist infrastructure. Much
more needs to be done, however: A recent U.N. report found that efforts
to stop al Qaeda funding have stalled and the organization is still armed
and dangerous.
But more needs to
be done. The United States should expect European and Russian support
in the United Nations to take weapons of mass destruction out of Saddam's
hands. And greater efforts are needed to stop the venomous preaching of
jihad, of wanton violence against innocent civilians.
Terrorism is violence
against non-combatants to achieve political goals. It is as barbaric as
cannibalism and human sacrifice used to be. It must not be tolerated.
Together, we can stop it.
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he
first anniversary of the 9/11 attack is a fitting time to take stock of
where America is and where we want to go. We are going to defeat those
who hate our freedom, our tolerance, our way of life, our faith in equality
and opportunity. This vision is shared by hundreds of millions of people
across the planet. This is not just America's war. We are not alone.
