Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor to President George W. Bush, addresses The City Club of Cleveland in Westlake. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

War on terror involves broad goals, Rice tells City Club
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Oct. 20, 2004

The war against terrorism includes not only destroying al-Qaeda but also promoting freedom in the Middle East so the hatred that leads to terrorist acts will be squelched, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Rice spoke at The City Club of Cleveland's Friday Forum, which was moved from the organization's downtown home to LaCentre Conference and Banquet Facility to accommodate a larger audience.

While some see the War on Terror as a narrow struggle against a narrow enemy, the Bush administration sees it in much broader terms, Rice said. "The global war on terror calls us, as President Bush immediately understood, to marshal all elements of national power to defeat terrorists and to defeat the ideology of hatred that sustains them and recruits others to their ranks."

"This is the struggle of our time," Rice said, drawing parallels to the four-decade long Cold War against communism.

While the destruction of the al-Qaeda terrorist camps and overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan were important parts of the war, they were not the end, Rice said. Nor were the dramatic increases in homeland security undertaken since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she added.

American cannot pursue a strategy that is solely defensive, Rice said, because the terrorists have to be successful only once.

"The fact is that unless we change the circumstances that produce this ideology of hatred and hopelessness so great that it causes people to fly planes into buildings and to strap suicide bombs to their bodies, our children and our grandchildren will still be fighting this war decades from now," Rice said. "But if we choose to wage a broad war against this global menace, and if we choose to create a lasting foundation for peace, we can defeat the terrorists and we can defeat their ideology of murder, and we can build a better world."

Reducing the enemy's territory is a key objective in any war, Rice said, including this one. The world in which terrorists can freely operate has shrunk significantly since Sept. 11, 2001, Rice said, as countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have taken dramatic steps to eradicate terrorist groups from their territories.

"The places where (terrorists) can operate with impunity are becoming fewer and fewer. And we will not rest until there is not safe place for them to hide."

President Bush has also sought to stop the proliferation of deadly weapons, Rice said. "The president's policy on weapons of mass destructions is very clear -- regimes can pursue WMDs at great peril and at great cost, or regimes can give up their WMDs and embark on a path to better relations with the international community."

President Bush has also broken with 60 years of U.S. foreign policy, which sought a false stability and overlooked the lack of freedom in Middle Eastern countries, Rice said.

"As long as the broader Middle East remains a region of tyranny and despair and anger, it will produce men and movements which threaten the safety of America and our friends," Rice said.

Instead, the U.S. is now promoting the beginnings of political pluralism in the region, Rice said, and pointed to recent elections in Afghanistan as a historical accomplishment.

Iraq was a central front on the war against terrorism, Rice said, because Saddam Hussein's regime was a unique threat to the U.S., the rest of the Middle East and the entire world, Rice said.

"We all expected to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Rice said. "What we found was that Saddam had a strategy that demonstrated that we were never going to be able to break the link between Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction. The only way to put an end to his ambitions, buttressed by his wealth, by his knowledge and capability, was to change the regime, a reality that had been recognized by the United States Congress in 1998."

A recent report by U.S. Weapons Inspector Charles Duelfer showed that Saddam Hussein was waiting for international sanctions against Iraq to end so that he could restart his weapons programs, Rice said. Critics of the Bush administration have emphasized Duelfer's findings that Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and no capabilities of making any.

"The Duelfer report showed that sooner rather than later Saddam was going to be in a position to pursue his goal of a WMD-armed Iraq dominating the Middle East and menacing the United States and our allies," Rice said.

"So long as Saddam Hussein remained in power, menacing his people and menacing the region and menacing the world from the heart of the world's most volatile region, he remained the key enemy of hope and progress in the broader Middle East."

While Rice acknowledged the period since Saddam was removed from power has been difficult, she said the goal of elections in Iraq and establishing an Iraqi security force would be achieved. And she warned there would be further violence there in the weeks ahead, especially in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"(The terrorists) know that the success of democracy in Iraq will be a mortal blow to their ambition to impose Taliban-like rule in the Middle East," Rice said.

The current turbulence in Iraq and Afghanistan is far preferable to the false sense of stability the world felt before the Sept. 11 attacks, Rice said.

In response to a question about the military draft, Rice said the president is adamant that there will be no draft. U.S. forces around the world can be realigned from a Cold War posture prepared to face a military superpower to better face today's threats.

Prior to the Rice's speech, about 30 anti-war and Kerry-Edwards supporters protested outside LaCentre along Detroit Road. Capt. Guy Turner said the protesters were cooperative and there were no problems during Rice's visit. "Everybody's rights were respected," Turner said.