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Edited on Mon Sep-11-06 08:43 PM by Clarkie1
I think there are two clear paths ahead. This nation can listen to the dictates of fear and hubris as the administration alternately ignores Al Qaeda and then trumpets their success. Alternately brags about success in Iraq and then ignores it, and all the while beats the tom-toms for war with Iran.
Yes, our country could slide that way if we listen to the dictates of fear. But we have nothing to fear in this country. We're still the greatest power in the world. And we can be the greatest force of good in the world. And we can keep ourselves safe.
I'd like us to resolve on this 5th Anniversary of 9/11, that we as Americans no longer need live in fear. We should live in determination that we'll protect ourselves. Support our friends and allies around the world. Work together to solve the common problems that face mankind. And above all, we'll make sure that at home that we never sacrifice the liberties and rights that define our country. Even in an effort to protect ourselves.
We can have it all. We can do it all.
We just have to be courageous and face the facts as they are and work for the future as we want it to be.
Thank you.
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Full transcript.....
September 11, 2001. Do you remember where you were that fateful morning in America?
Of course. We'll never forget it.
I was on the way to work. I tried to make a telephone call on my cell phone and couldn't get through to someone in New York and was convinced it was my cell phone's failure. I wish it had been.
But now it's five years after September 11th. Did you ever imagine where five years later we might be?
Let's look at the facts. Five years after 9/11 Osama bin Laden is still on the loose. There are two and a half times more terrorists affiliated with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization now than there were in 2001. The incidents of terrorism, inspired or orchestrated or otherwise supported by Osama bin Laden and his faction have increased around the world. Including, still threats directed against the United States of America. Including one broken up only a month or so ago that would have taken down 10 airliners in flight over the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the worst people are getting the worst weapons. North Korea, which stalled its nuclear program under the Clinton Administration, has now moved ahead to reprocess its spent uranium fuel, probably has 8 to 10 nuclear weapons as a result.
Iran, is apparently moving to produce highly enriched uranium, as well as, the heavy water required to generate fissile material in another path toward nuclear weapons.
And in Iraq, it was an invasion that didn't have to be made as the Senate study released on the 7th of September acknowledged. There was no linkage between Saddam Hussein and the events of 9/11. And so, having gone unnecessarily to war, we now find ourselves three and a half years later fully engaged - 140,00 American ground troops. Air power in the region. The Army and Marine Corps over-stretched. Iraq sliding into civil war. Effort after effort made to put a government together. The neighbors involved. Threats of disintegration of Iraq. A recruiting ground for Al Qaeda. We're creating more terrorists than we're eliminating.
Could we have possibly imagined five years ago, that we would have done so poorly?
Well the truth is, yes! We did imagine it, because right after 9/11 we saw all the indicators of an administration that was tragically mistaken in the way it approached national security, and mixed national security with politics. Its approach to national security was colored by the "Project for a New American Century" and some prejudices brought in by Administration members from a time far distant in the evolution of the Post-Cold War world. A determination to smash regimes by force in the Middle East. And a determination to strike governments rather than go after terrorists organizations themselves.
Yes, we saw that. We saw it in the refusal to deal with the terrorists before 9/11 and the president's dereliction of duty. We saw it afterwards in the hasty decision to invade Iraq no matter what. And I saw it when I went through the Pentagon in November of 2001 when a senior officer waved a memo in front of me that purported to explain the administration's plans to take down, first Iraq, then Syria, then Lebanon, then Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and then go after Iran - all in five years.
Yes, we could have imagined that all this was going to fail. We just didn't know how badly or what the tragic consequences would be. Now it's becoming increasingly clear.
Al Qaeda is not being defeated despite the fact that some of its identified leadership has been taken out. Its actually grown stronger.
The war in Iraq rumbles on consuming our armed forces, distracting American leadership from more important tasks at hand. And that so called "Axis of Evil" which the president couldn't wait to spring on the American people in his 2002 address. Well, they're more than ever working together to get precisely the weapons which the president promised he wouldn't allow to happen.
We shouldn't have been surprised. And that's why I'm asking you, on this 5th Anniversary, to think about the future of this country.
All that we could be.
All that we stand for.
All that others have aspired to, is on the line in America, in our political system.
We believed in right, not might.
We believe that international law was inevitable for the future.
We believed that we had to work with neighbors.
We believed that we had to make more friends than enemies.
We believed we should reinforce those that share our values.
We never believed that we should impose our values on others.
Start war where it wasn't necessary.
Alienate friends by bombastic rhetoric.
Ignore allies.
And seek only our self-interests in the world.
I think there are two clear paths ahead. This nation can listen to the dictates of fear and hubris as the administration alternately ignores Al Qaeda and then trumpets their success. Alternately brags about success in Iraq and then ignores it, and all the while beats the tom-toms for war with Iran.
Yes, our country could slide that way if we listen to the dictates of fear. But we have nothing to fear in this country. We're still the greatest power in the world. And we can be the greatest force of good in the world. And we can keep ourselves safe.
I'd like us to resolve on this 5th Anniversary of 9/11, that we as Americans no longer need live in fear. We should live in determination that we'll protect ourselves. Support our friends and allies around the world. Work together to solve the common problems that face mankind. And above all, we'll make sure that at home that we never sacrifice the liberties and rights that define our country. Even in an effort to protect ourselves.
We can have it all. We can do it all.
We just have to be courageous and face the facts as they are and work for the future as we want it to be.
Thank you.
audio/podcast link at www.securingamerica.com
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