Doris Dalisky, 82, left, and Marie Parker, 81, from Kent, Wash., salute as the flag passes at the annual Veterans Day parade. (© AP/WWP)

11 November 2005

Faith in Freedom Will Defeat Ideology of Terror, Bush Declares, November 11, 2005

(United States seeks to replace "hatred and resentment with democracy and hope")

By Howard Cincotta
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- In a major address that condemned the ideology of terrorism and presented a strategy for defeating it, President Bush asserted that "because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future."

He spoke to an audience of veterans and military personnel at a U.S. Army facility in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, on November 11.

The president said that global acts of terrorism -- from Indonesia to Jordan -- might appear to be random and senseless, but they are neither.  "While the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology -- a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane."

These extremists -- many of whom are members of or associated with loose global network known as al-Qaida -- seek to establish a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom through terrorism, violence and intimidation, according to the president.

Whether this evil is called "Islamic radicalism … militant Jihadism, or Islamo-fascism, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam," Bush asserted, by distorting religion into a call for terrorist murder of all those, including Muslims, who do not share their radical vision.

"The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century," he said. 

Terrorist networks thrive like parasites on the suffering and frustration of others, Bush said.  They manipulate local conflicts, create a culture of victimization, and exploit resentful young people by recruiting them as pawns of terror.

President Bush cites three principal goals of terrorist organizations like al-Qaida:

· Eliminating Western influence throughout the broader Middle East because the U.S. and other nations stand for the fundamental principles of freedom and democracy that the terrorists oppose;

· Gaining control of an entire country -- much as they did in Afghanistan under the Taliban -- which can then be used as a base from which to launch a war against more moderate Arab and Muslim states; and

· Establishing a radical Islamic state stretching from Spain to Indonesia following the ouster of Western influence, and the overthrow of moderate governments, according to the president. 

President Bush said, "With the greater economic, military and political power they seek, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda:  to develop weapons of mass destruction; to destroy Israel; to intimidate Europe; to assault the American people; and to blackmail our government into isolation."

Bush cited what he called "helpers and enablers" of terrorism, such as corrupted charities; intolerant strains of Islam; and elements of the Arab news media that feed on conspiracy theories and incites hatred and anti-Semitism.  

These groups claim America is waging "war on Islam," the president said, ignoring American actions to protect Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Somalia, Kosovo and Kuwait and Iraq, and to provide assistance to victims of natural disasters in Indonesia and Pakistan.

SYRIA, IRAN

Bush pointed as well to authoritarian regimes like Iran and Syria that give protection to extremists and use terrorist propaganda to avoid blame for their own failures.

Bush specifically criticized Syria for the arrest of democratic reformer Kamal Labani, and for a "strident speech" that attacked both the Lebanese government and the U.N. investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister.

 "The government of Syria must stop exporting violence and start importing democracy," Bush declared.

President Bush denied the claim that the U.S. presence in Iraq strengthens extremism, pointing out that the U.S. was not present in Iraq when the 9/11 attacks occurred. 

"The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue, and it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse," Bush said. 

"No act of ours invited the rage of killers -- and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder," Bush said.  "On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence.  Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response:  We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory." 

Like communism, which was defeated in the last century Islamic radicalism contains contradictions that doom it to failure, according to the president,. 

"Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation and decline and collapse," Bush declared.  "Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future."

STRATEGY FOR WINNING WAR ON TERROR

To defeat "a broad and adaptive network" of terrorism requires patience, pressure, and strong global partners, President Bush said as he laid out a five-point strategy:

· Prevent terrorist attacks before they occur through such means as better-coordinated homeland defenses and intelligence activities;

· Deny weapons of mass destruction to "outlaw regimes and to their terrorist allies;"

· Deny terrorist groups the support of any government or regime;

· Deny militants control of any nation that would become "a launching pad for terror;" and

· "Replace hatred and resentment with democracy and hope across the broader Middle East.”

In Iraq, Bush said, "The terrorist goal is to overthrow a rising democracy, claim a strategic country as a haven for terror, destabilize the Middle East, and strike America and other free nations with increasing violence.  Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and their allies at the heart of their power, so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq."

The coalition strategy in Iraq is to "clear, hold, and build," according to the president:  clear out terrorists, hold the area to make it secure, and build lasting democratic institutions.

He cited progress in training police and security forces, as well as Iraqis voting for a new constitution in October and preparing to vote for a new government in December.

"The elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong and steadfast," Bush said.  "By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress -- from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, to the ratification of a constitution -- in the space of two-and-a-half years."

The U.S. will work for democracy and reform, he said, and advocate "clearly and confidently our belief in self-determination, and the rule of law, and religious freedom, and equal rights for women -- beliefs that are right and true in every land and in every culture."

He also praised the efforts of Muslims around the world who have stood against extremism, often at great personal risk, to ensure "the survival of their own liberty, the future of their own region, the justice and humanity of their own tradition."

President Bush spoke on Veteran's Day in the United States, a holiday first celebrated as Armistice Day to mark the end of the First World War in 1918. (See related article.)

For the transcript of President Bush's Veteran's Day address, see “Cause of Freedom Will Prevail in War on Terror, Bush Says.”