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November 19, 2001
Thank you so very much, ladies and gentlemen, for that warm welcome,
and I thank you, Senator McConnell for that very kind and generous
introduction. It is a tribute to you, Mitch, my friend, that we
are all here today. The McConnell Center for Political Leadership
carries more than your name; it carries your vision, it carries
your passion for educating the leaders of tomorrow.
With the McConnell Center, you have inspired a new generation with
the same reverence for civic participation and community conscience
that you have exemplified during your own quarter century of service
to your state and to your nation. Thanks to you, the McConnell scholarships
have provided over $1 million to help prepare Kentucky's and America's
future leaders to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
And I will have to pause, Mitch, and thank you especially for the
support that you and your committee and your colleagues in the Congress
have given me over the last 10 months, to help me equip the State
Department to carry out the foreign policy of the American people
in the 21st century. That support has been an enormous inspiration
to me as well as an inspiration to the Department.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you that it has been my privilege
to work with Senator McConnell for many years. He is time tested,
battle ready. I have admired throughout all those years his tireless
support for democracy around the world. Indeed, America has no greater
ambassador for democracy than Mitch McConnell and you should be
proud of his service on your behalf. Thank you once again. (Applause.)
President Schumaker, Provost Garrison, Professor Gregg, McConnell
scholars, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I would like
to thank the faculty of the University of Louisville, the board
of trustees, President Schumaker and those who nominated me for
honoring me with this degree. The slogan of the University of Louisville
is "Dare to be great." President Schumaker, you and your
faculty are instilling in your students the drive for excellence
that underpins our success as individuals in life and as a nation.
And I am proud now to be a Louisville Cardinal, along with all the
rest of you here today. (Applause.)
And, by the way, congratulations to all of us Cardinals for another
Conference USA championship and, now on to the Liberty Bowl. (Applause.)
And you whupped up on those folks 92 to 38 last night. That ain't
right. (Laughter.)
It's also great to be back in Louisville, a city that I have always
enjoyed visiting. Before I became Secretary of State, I was Chairman
of America's Promise, the Alliance for Youth, an organization, a
crusade that has as its mission to build the character and confidence
of America's young people. And I came to Louisville four years ago
in that capacity to congratulate Mayor Abramson and the city for
the great work that Louisville had been doing for its young people.
It was one of our very, very best Communities of Promise.
And I especially remember at that time, Jerry gave me one of those
huge, oversized Louisville Slugger baseball bats. And I was deeply
appreciative of that. I still keep it in my office. And, believe
me, it comes in handy late at night, when I've had enough diplomacy
for one day and I want to hit somebody. (Laughter.) So I thank you,
Jerry, and it's good to see you here in the audience.
Ladies and gentlemen, the McConnell Center is all about leadership
and that is why I am here today, to talk to you about American leadership
in today's world. We don't need reminding that America's leadership
in the world today is vitally important. It is now 69 days since
September 11th, when cold-blooded terrorists turned civilian airliners
into flying bombs and used them to kill 5,000 innocent people. That
is four or five times the number of people who are assembled here
today.
Every one of us was affected by what happened on the 11th of September.
Some of us lost loved ones, like your great basketball coach, Rick
Pitino, who tragically lost his brother-in-law in the World Trade
Center. Others of us merely lost our innocence. We can never look
at a jetliner flying in a clear blue sky the same way again.
Under President Bush's leadership, we have responded to this outrage
against civilization. We have quickly assembled a remarkable coalition
of countries. Almost every country in the world except for one or
two are part of this coalition. And that coalition came together
and launched a full-scale campaign against al-Qaida, the terrorist
conspiracy that attacked us, and its ring leader, Usama bin Laden.
To get to terrorists, we had to go after the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan that was protecting them. We warned them. We warned
the Taliban to turn over bin Laden or we would make them pay. They
refused, and we have now made them pay. (Applause.) We have driven
them from power, and I know that all of you are as proud as I am
of the brave men and women of our armed forces and our intelligence
services who made that success possible. Those kids are just great,
and we all need to be proud of them. (Applause.)
But this war is not over, and our troops will carry on the fight
until al-Qaida is destroyed. I hope that all of you will keep those
wonderful GIs in your prayers this Thanksgiving week.
As we continue our campaign against the terrorists of September
11th, let me make one point crystal clear. These murderers did not
act on behalf of Muslims or on the behalf of the poor and downtrodden
of the world, or on behalf of Palestinians. Their terror was indiscriminate.
The murderers of September 11th killed people of all faith -- Muslims
and Jews, Christians and Hindus. Muslim leaders around the world
have condemned these attacks. Leading Islamic groups have joined
distinguished Muslim scholars in rejecting bin Laden's efforts to
cloak himself in Islam.
Nor do the terrorists speak for the Palestinians, whose leaders
have rejected bin Laden's attempt to hijack their cause for his
murderous ends. No, these criminals have no religion, and they have
no human cause. Their goal, and the goal of all like them, is to
divide and embitter people. They are evil merchants of death and
destruction.
To understand the true faith of al-Qaida and the Taliban, all we
have to do is look at the way they hijacked Afghanistan. The Taliban
squeezed the life out of Afghanistan -- no music, no soccer, no
education or jobs for women, nothing -- nothing but total support
to Usama bin Laden and his gang of al-Qaida murderers. Now, in recent
days, as the curtain has been lifted, we have seen on television
the joyous pictures of liberated Afghans, of women throwing off
their burqas, children happily flying kites. Last night, we saw
the television station start broadcasting again, with two women
and a man not only giving out the news, but reading the Koran to
those who could listen for the first time in years.
Compare the Taliban's depredations with the response of the international
community to the plight of the Afghan people. We are feeding millions
of Afghans put at risk by drought, famine and Taliban misrule. Before
we were able to go in on the ground, we dropped food from the air.
Now we are using airplanes, trucks, barges, even donkeys -- anything
that will get food in to these destitute people before the winter
arrives in force. We should be proud that the United States, our
country, is the largest contributor to this effort to help the desperate
Afghan people, and we will do more.
We are not stopping there. We are working with the international
community and the Afghan people to help them rebuild their country.
Tomorrow, back in Washington, I will kick off the first international
Afghan reconstruction meeting to achieve this purpose.
We are also working with the United Nations to help the Afghans
form a new government, one that represents all geographical and
ethnic backgrounds, one that will end Afghanistan's role as a haven
for terrorists and drug dealers, one that will permit reconstruction
and allow these millions of refugees to return home in peace and
security.
One message that leaps out from the events of September 11th is
very clear. American leadership in foreign affairs has never been
more important. And job one for American leadership in this period
is the fight against terrorists.
As President Bush told a joint session of Congress September 20th,
our war on terror will not end until every terrorist group of global
reach has been found, stopped and defeated. My friends, we know
it will take time. It will take effort. We will be patient. We will
be persistent. And I can assure you that, under President Bush's
leadership, we will not rest until the job has been done and civilization
is safe again. (Applause.)
While the fight against the terrorists is our top priority, it
is not our only priority. In these first years of the 21st century,
we have other interests too important to ignore. In fact, as President
Bush has said, winning the war against terrorism will create new
opportunities to use American leadership and power to make the world
safer, freer and more prosperous. Whether by bolstering free trade,
dealing with problems in the Middle East and other regions, or strengthening
relations with key countries, we will seize these opportunities
for the benefit of the American people and for the benefit of the
world.
We saw an example of that last week when President Bush hosted
Russia's President Putin at the White House and then down at his
ranch in Crawford, Texas. Those two places, the two presidents spoke
on the unprecedented cooperation Russia has given us since September
11th. President Putin was the first foreign leader to call President
Bush and not just to offer sympathy and condolences, but to offer
help, to align Russia with us in this new campaign against terrorism.
President Bush and President Putin are creating a new US-Russia
relationship, based on finding areas for more cooperation, on counterterrorism,
of course, but also on reducing the number of nuclear weapons in
our inventories, and by taking steps to strengthen the Russian economy
to allow them to draw more to the West and become part of the Euro-Atlantic
partnership.
And notice the two, security and economic development. Because
with security must come economic development and prosperity. I believe
that in this new century, American economic leadership has the potential
to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty. When I was in
China a few weeks ago, accompanying President Bush to a meeting
of Asian and Pacific leaders, I was amazed at how the city of Shanghai
had grown compared to the Shanghai that I had visited some 30 years
earlier.
China's remarkable growth of the past two decades has come from
investing the savings of the Chinese people, from the capital of
foreign businesspeople, and from the profits earned by Chinese exporters.
At the same time, China's growth benefits American consumers, the
average American citizen, who can find good value in a Chinese product
at a local store. This kind of two-way trade helps everyone, benefits
both societies. And that's why free trade is so important, and that's
what free trade is all about.
In this same way, freer trade will help other economies -- in Asia,
in Africa, in Europe, in our own hemisphere, in the Americas --
all of them being given the opportunity to create the jobs needed
to lift more of their people out of poverty and out of despair.
Trade is good for all of us, producers and consumers alike, and
that is why we were so pleased to see China, as well as Taiwan,
become members of the World Trading Organization earlier this month.
And that is why American leadership, in launching a new round of
global trade negotiations, was so important. In a meeting last week
in Doha, Qatar, United States Trade Representative Bob Zoellich
and his team did a magnificent job in clearing the way to new talks
on global trade. President Bush is totally committed to free trade.
But to conclude the trade agreements that benefit us, the kind of
trade agreements that we need, we very badly need Congress to pass
trade promotion authority as soon as possible.
With trade promotion authority, the President's team negotiates
an agreement with another country, which Congress then votes to
accept or reject as a whole. That way, our negotiating partners
are more willing to make the hard compromises and choices they need
to make, knowing that the agreements they do make with us will not
be reopened when those agreements go before Congress.
So we want more and more of these kinds of agreements, and more
and more open trade in order to take advantage of this 21st century
time of hope and opportunity, a time for determined American leadership,
political leadership, diplomatic leadership and economic leadership,
the kind of leadership that President Bush is giving to the nation
and giving to the world.
It is also a time of danger and a time of challenges requiring
American leadership. And nowhere are the challenges greater than
in the Middle East, a region where we have fought long for our most
basic values and principles, a region where we have stood by our
friends, Arab and Israeli, in war and in peace, for over half a
century.
Since Israel's establishment over 50 years ago, the United States
has had an enduring and ironclad commitment to Israel's security.
The United States-Israeli relationship is based on the broadest
conception of American national interests, in which our two nations
are bound forever together by common democratic values and traditions.
This will never change.
One of my proudest moments as a soldier and as an American came
in 1991, when American troops led the international coalition of
forces that liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's invaders. Later
that year, though, I watched with equal pride as Arabs and Israelis
gathered together in the aftermath of the Gulf War. They gathered
together in Madrid to take advantage of the opportunity created
by the successful war. They took the opportunity to launch an historic
process of negotiations aimed at ending their conflicts once and
for all. They, too, were supported by an American-led coalition,
one focused this time on peace rather than on war.
The Middle East is a region facing enormous problems. The hope
created in Madrid has faded. Last month marked the tenth anniversary
of the Madrid conference, a time to look forward as well as look
back. We are looking forward now as we try to capture the spirit
of Madrid and create a renewed sense of hope and common purpose
for the peoples of the Middle East. America has a positive vision
for the region, a vision that we want to share with our friends
in Israel and in the Arab world.
We have a vision of a region where Israelis and Arabs can live
together in peace, security and dignity. We have a vision of a region
where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within
secure and recognized borders. We have a vision of a region where
all people have jobs that let them put bread on their tables, provide
a roof over their heads and offer a decent education to their children.
We have a vision of a region where all people worship God in a spirit
of tolerance and understanding. And we have a vision of a region
where respect for the sanctity of the individual, the rule of law
and the politics of participation grow stronger day by day.
Such a vision seems far away today. Throughout much of the Middle
East, the economic challenges are daunting. Too little economic
growth creates too few jobs for burgeoning populations. And too
much red tape and government control stifle private enterprise and
initiative.
Throughout much of the region, political systems do not provide
citizens an adequate say in how they are governed. They do not offer
a way for people to peacefully work out competing needs and visions
for their future.
The solutions to these challenges will come about only through
hard work, common sense, basic fairness and a readiness to compromise.
They will not be created by teaching hate and division, nor will
they be born amidst violence and war.
To help America recognize this positive vision, we will stay engaged.
America wants to recognize its positive vision and help all in the
region to achieve this positive vision. America will continue to
strongly support expansion of economic opportunity in the region,
political openness and tolerance, will support efforts to find regional
solutions to security challenges, and we will conduct serious diplomacy
aimed at resolving regional conflict. The Middle East has always
needed active American engagement for there to be progress, and
we will provide it, just as we have for over half a century.
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