Wolfowitz also made the following points about Afghanistan, Turkey and Indonesia:

-- The U.S. mission in Afghanistan "is one of liberation, not occupation" with an emphasis on helping the Afghans "provide their own stability and security."

-- Returning Afghan refugees "could place new strains on a still tenuous food supply this winter, but we are no longer worried about widespread starvation."

-- "Turkey offers an important model to the Muslim world as it embarks on its own road to representative government."

-- By helping bolster Turkish reform efforts and helping the country continue to succeed, America and Europe amplify the message to the Muslim and developing worlds that Turkey "is the model to emulate."

-- Indonesia's support for the campaign against terrorism has been significant.

-- If the U.S. is serious about its opposition to terrorism, it also must be serious about helping Indonesia in its quest for a stable democracy and economy.

Remarks Prepared for Delivery
By Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
Brookings Institution
Washington, DC
Thursday, September 5, 2002.

"Building a Better World: One Path from Crisis to Opportunity"

Thank you, Strobe [Talbott]. Congratulations on your new post as president of Brookings. Your long record of service and intellectual contributions to the public debate have made their marks on policy. That is something I know that you will continue to do here at Brookings.

In my last job at SAIS [School of Advanced International Studies), I wasn't supposed to say nice things about our neighbors at Brookings.... But, now I can. That's something I'm delighted to do -- especially because Brookings is doing something very important with this series-putting September 11th and its aftermath into context.

I know there are some here this morning with great expectations. Big hopes that I will put at least one topic into context. On that score, you'll be happy to know, I plan to take bold, preemptive action. That got your attention. I will refer to my boss, [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld, who did a masterful job of putting so much into context in his press briefing on Tuesday [September 3], especially when he said this about a particular regime -- I think you can guess which one. He said, and I quote: It has "not been playing tiddly-winks."

If you missed Tuesday's briefing, you missed one of the all-time great briefings. Now, they're all great, but he was in especially fine form on Tuesday. And knowing there'd be a few media folks here today, I decided to ask Rumsfeld himself for a few pointers. So this morning before I left, I said to him, "You handle the press pretty well. Is there anything I should keep in mind over at Brookings? There may be a few media folks around." And he said, "There's no question but that whatever you do, don't try to be hard-hitting, clever or witty. In other words, don't try to be me. Just be yourself."

I could see he was warming to the subject -- his hands were getting animated. He said, "Here's how you deal with the media. Begin with an illogical premise and proceed perfectly logically to an illogical conclusion. They do it all the time. But, if you do it first ... they'll be eviscerated!"

Of course, eviscerated is that famous word that passed the lips of one of our Marine generals who had the Taliban stomped a few weeks ahead of their time. To that, my hard-charging Marine military assistant quickly added, "We Marines may not know how to spell eviscerated, but we sure know how to do it."

In the vein of people who know how to do things and do them well, I must say that I cannot think of a more inspired time to be a part of America's national security team: It has been a distinct privilege to serve with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Rich Armitage and Don Rumsfeld. If the American people were in my shoes, I know they would be enormously proud of how this team is pursuing this nation's noblest aims.

And that gets to me the point of my speech today. I know that even if I don't talk about a particular regime today most of you will still have an interest in what I have to say, or at least humor me. Now that is really why I appreciate this crowd in particular.

Today, just a week shy of the first anniversary of the attacks, I think you'll agree that it is appropriate to take this opportunity to go beyond the headlines to get some altitude and some perspective on the situation we face today.

On that Tuesday last September, there was one American who looked on the aftermath of the attacks from a great altitude -- literally -- from a vantage point some 250 miles above the earth's surface. Aboard the International Space Station, Frank Culbertson and his Russian crewmembers could clearly make out the plume of smoke that wafted so insistently from the site of the World Trade Center. Later, they would see a black shroud envelope the Pentagon. Just a day later, Culbertson would reflect that what they observed so clearly from space certainly signaled a dramatically changed world below.

Meanwhile, here on earth, Shafeeq Ghabra, a Palestinian and a professor of political science at Kuwait University, was directing Kuwait's public information center here in Washington last September 11th. Three weeks before, he had visited the World Trade Center with his family and taken photos of his seven-year-old son there. Looking back on the attack from the distance of almost a year, he observed last week in the New York Times that "a small number of Muslims killed a much larger number of Muslims" in New York.

Each person's view of what happened that day -- an American in space and an Arab Muslim in America -- in its way captures a fundamental truth: what happens in the United States cannot fail to have its impact on the rest of the world. It certainly was no mistake that the World Trade Center, a symbol and hub of America's economic dynamism, was a target. And when the American market was damaged, shock waves reverberated -- they rumble still -- around the globe. But, the attacks also shined a searchlight of truth on the true intentions of the terrorists. For as Shafeeq Ghabra has pointed out, the terrorists seek to target not just America, but Muslims and Islam -- by destroying the ideals of tolerance, justice and openness as they apply to Muslims the world over. If the terrorists are successful in destroying these ideals, East and West alike will suffer.

As I have been pointing out to audiences since that day, the terrorists target their fellow Muslims, upon whom they aim to impose a new kind of violent tyranny -- a tyranny that pretends to be based on Islam, but which owes more to the totalitarian impulses of the 20th century than to the great religion the terrorists are attempting to hijack. The hundreds of millions of Muslims who aspire to modernity, freedom, and prosperity are, in reality, themselves on the frontlines of the struggle against terrorism.

Afghanistan

Nowhere was this struggle more evident than in Afghanistan, where totalitarian brutality, imposed by the Taliban, offered sanctuary to terrorists with their own radically backward and chauvinistic distortion of Islam.

The United States mobilized against this grave threat, and we now fight a war on terror. This is a war that we will win. But, we also must fight the much larger war that was exposed last September. And this is a war, too, that we must win. This larger struggle is part of another dimension of the war -- a dimension the President addressed in his State of the Union message, but one that does not get emphasized enough. That larger war we face is the war of ideas -- the struggle over modernity and secularism, pluralism and democracy, and real economic development. In his State of the Union message, President Bush declared that in this fight, "America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere.... We have a greater objective than eliminating threats and containing resentment. We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror."

Part of building that just and peaceful world the President envisions lies in the next steps we must take in that larger struggle. For what we have before us today is less a clash of civilizations, as some have theorized, than a collision of misunderstanding between the Muslim and Western worlds.

I would quickly add that my view on the subject of East and West, one that has been shaped by almost two decades of personal experience, is decidedly optimistic. But, that does not mean that I can't see a truth that we must confront today: So let me be clear: there is a dangerous gap between the West and the Muslim world. We must bridge this gap and we must do it now.

Part of bridging this gap is helping to expose the lies at the heart of the terrorists' methods and convincing their potential followers that theirs is a blind alley leading to defeat and ignominy. Part of exposing this blind alley is to offer a better alternative. The alternatives of liberty and justice, as President Bush has said ... fundamental pillars in a just and peaceful world.

When it comes to certain countries and individuals around the world, we may be a long way from that better alternative. But, that is all the more reason why we need to bridge the dangerous gap now.

The arena where we will most readily be judged in how we narrow the gap is Afghanistan -- and that is one of the reasons why it is so important that we succeed there. As we look at Afghanistan 11 months after the war on terrorism began, we see, quite frankly, a mixture of good news and bad news. I think some of the bad news has been exaggerated and is in danger of drowning out the fundamentally remarkable news that the country has been unbelievably transformed in less than a year. There are still a great many problems that remain to be solved, but that is hardly surprising in a country that has suffered from 23 years of brutal invasion and civil war.

We can't expect to solve all the problems of the last two and a half decades overnight -- and there are many -- and we are quite attuned to the existing challenges. But, on the whole, I would say that, over the last 11 months, there has been much more good news in Afghanistan than bad. The Afghan people have been liberated. The Taliban is out of power, and -- along with portions of al-Qaida -- they are killed, or dispersed and on the run. This fact alone has paved the way for other significant developments, some of which are transforming the landscape in that war-torn region, both literally and figuratively.

Before last September, the U.N. warned that more than 5 million Afghans, some of whom were surviving on cattle feed, grass and insects, were facing death without immediate help. It's worth noting that even before last September, the United States was the largest contributor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. When military operations began last October, humanitarian efforts were an integral part of our military missions from the very beginning. The UN World Food Program, supported by the U.S. government, provided 575,000 metric tons of food to almost 10 million Afghans -- including record amounts of food during the coalition bombing campaign. Today the picture is vastly different. Famine has been averted, and refugees have returned in record numbers to Afghanistan. That success presents a new challenge -- the returning refugees could place new strains on a still-tenuous food supply this winter, but we are no longer worried about widespread starvation.

In coordination with the great work being done by USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and the UN, our soldiers have pitched in and, with Afghan labor, have built 50 schools. That means that some 62,000 more children -- boys and girls -- youngsters whose first lessons taught them that the sound of gunfire was a natural part of life, can now go to school and learn new lessons, dream new dreams. And that is certainly one of the most far-reaching ways we can help these young Afghans build their own better world. A Ministry of Women's Affairs is up and running, in itself a counterpoint to the old regime as stark as anything that might have been imagined a year ago. And President Karzai recently promoted Afghanistan's only remaining female Air Force parachutist to the rank of general. Farmers have returned to their fields, and, with the help of U.S. seed programs, crop production has increased some 82 percent over last year.

Our troops on the ground are making a direct contribution to Afghanistan's future, implementing humanitarian projects across the country that include repairing hospitals, digging wells, and repairing irrigation canals. All told, some 18,000 Afghans have gone to work in various projects.

So, as the social infrastructure gets slowly rebuilt, so too does the political framework. In another encouraging development, the Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, elected Hamid Karzai president of the two-year transitional government in a process based on traditional principles of representation, ethnic balance, accountability and legitimacy. One senior advisor to Karzai said that, for the first time in more than 20 years, the people of Afghanistan are acquiring a voice. But, now, we must empower the Afghan government, whose ministries are weak and whose governmental coffers hold less than a third of what their modest budget requires. And we must reinforce President Karzai's popular mandate with enough resources to fulfill promises to the Afghan people.

A crucial factor in sustaining representative government in Afghanistan is, first and foremost, sustaining a stable and secure environment in which such a government can gain a firm hold and ultimately flourish. The United States is deeply engaged with the Afghan Transitional Authority and the international community on this task -- to include training of the Afghan National Army, which our soldiers have embarked on with their typical vigor and efficiency.

The recently graduated battalions of the Afghan National Army represent a critical first step toward the formation of a national security force, along with police and border guards. As you may know, we now have people from the State Department in some of the provincial areas teaming up with our Special Forces to help encourage harmony among the regional leaders and between regional leaders and the central government. Our people help mediate disputes, smooth over conflicts and thus play an unheralded but pivotal role in supporting Afghanistan's political equilibrium.

Security, although not perfect, is vastly better than it was a year ago. The security situation in Afghanistan is not collapsing. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, under the able leadership of the British and the Turks, has played an important role in this regard. It is important to remember that the original business of ISAF was to prevent this city, which is the capital of all Afghans, from being dominated by a single ethnic group, a development which in the mid-1990s contributed to the rise of the Taliban. ISAF has been accomplishing that mission successfully and we are in the process of identifying a new lead nation to take over when Turkey's term expires in December 2002.

There are some suggestions that expanding ISAF beyond Kabul may be a good thing also. We do not oppose ISAF expansion. I think there are some benefits that could come from using ISAF in ways outside the capital that would include patrolling, training the Afghan National Army, police, and border guard forces, and "buddying-up" with graduated Afghan National Army battalions. We welcome and support these developments and encourage the international community to provide the leadership and resources necessary to make it happen. At the same time that we consider a new and possibly larger role for ISAF, the highest priority has to go to sustaining it in its current mission.

We must also help reconstruct a stable economy. And the first step is economic assistance. I cannot underscore enough just how important such assistance is, not only for the economy, but for security as well: the more resources that flow through the country and Kabul, the more readily we can ease discontent and increase everyone's stake in the new institutions. Once a major transit point along the fabled Silk Road, Afghanistan can once again become an important hub in regional trade. That will happen through the resourcefulness of the Afghan people, which exists in abundance, with adequate roads -- which clearly must be rebuilt, and with international economic assistance -- which we need in abundance. Leadership through the State Department helped secure pledges of economic assistance through the organization of the Tokyo Donors Conference.

Having said that, our single biggest concern is that the economic aid is not coming through at the levels pledged in Tokyo. Quite simply, some of our donor allies are not giving their fair share. In fact, only a little more than 30 percent of the $1.8 billion ($1,800 thousand million) pledged for the first year has been delivered. Most of that money went to humanitarian assistance projects and many Afghans are still waiting for "real" reconstruction to begin.

But, as positive cash flow only trickles in, potential for risks promises to grow exponentially. Winter approaches, and for refugees who returned from Pakistan and Iran -- some 1.6 million, the largest return of refugees in modern history -- their gamble on the pledges of the international community could, but should not, mean disaster. The United States is now the predominant supporter of the multilateral relief and recovery effort -- and we are glad to lead the way. But, we can't do it alone. So, to those who have promised their support, I would offer the college student's familiar plea: send money now!

Looking ahead, another reason why this assistance is so important is that, as I suggested, over time, it will help create the kind of incentives that help bind the country together -- giving regional leaders a stake in the system and gradually building national institutions. We certainly do not support forces that would seek to destabilize Afghanistan's legitimate national institutions. We support President Karzai and the Afghan Transitional Authority, and we continue to look for ways to help Afghanistan build a secure and unified future.

Our emphasis is on helping Afghans establish the means to provide their own stability and security. That is because our mission in Afghanistan is one of liberation, not occupation.

We know full well that we have a big stake in Afghanistan's success. We remember the steep price there was to pay when Afghanistan was a failed state. Having come this far, and done so much, we will not walk away.

Turkey

As the situation in Afghanistan improves, it is encouraging to note that there have also been some very important positive developments in other areas of the Muslim world in the last couple of months. Although these developments haven't gotten the sort of media attention that the arrests of individual terrorists and the uncovering of new plots typically garner, they will prove in the long run far more important in building lasting peace. In the same way that we must acknowledge what's wrong in order to progress forward, it is equally important that we recognize what is right. That recognition itself is a form of encouragement to recognize true progress and accomplishment.

A country that occupies one of history's great strategic crossroads has, through a recent series of reforms, put itself at a historic crossroads as well. Last month, Turkey's parliament adopted truly groundbreaking reforms to meet requirements necessary for membership in the European Union. Turkey addressed broad political reform by granting television, radio broadcasting and education rights in Kurdish and other regional dialects. It also granted certain non-Muslim religious orders the right to own property; broadened freedom of expression; stiffened penalties for illegal migration, changed its death penalty statues and recognized the jurisdiction of European supranational bodies.

Turkey's economy minister rightly summarized these reforms as "a huge mobilization in favor of Europe." Should Turkey be allowed to join the EU [European Union], it will, in fact, be a mobilization in favor of us all. Through the years, Turkey has been one of America's most steadfast allies, quickly offering support after the attacks last September, including ground forces in Afghanistan. And Turkey carries out another tough responsibility today as the leader of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul following the Brits' six-month duty. But, Turkey's leadership goes far beyond its role as soldiers and peacekeepers.

Turkey's aspiration to join the EU is one that should be welcomed by all people who share the values of freedom and democracy. Europeans may grow weary of having Americans tell them about the importance of bringing Turkey into the EU. But, especially in light of Turkey's latest reforms, what is at stake is more than just the usual technical process of EU accession. It goes back to my point about the struggle of ideas: For in the long run, the way to defeat extremism is to demonstrate that the values that we call Western are indeed universal; to demonstrate that the benefits we enjoy -- the benefits of a free and prosperous and open society-- are available to all Muslims. Never has our stake in Turkey been greater.

Turkey offers an important model to the Muslim world as it embarks on its own road to representative government. As the great American scholar of Turkish history, Bernard Lewis, has observed, Turkey's experience shows that democracy is difficult but also that it is possible.

History attests that fashioning and sustaining democracy and free markets can be a difficult undertaking. In the West, it took centuries. But, Turkey charted its course through the 20th century with enormous courage and determination. Now it is positioning itself for the 21st Century. Its historic commitment to modernity and moderation is vindicated. America and Europe can bolster Turkey and help it continue to succeed. In so doing, we amplify the message that its success sends to the rest of the Muslim world, and indeed to the developing world as a whole: this is the model to emulate.

Indonesia

Indonesia is another important example of a country seeking to build a democratic government based on a culture of inclusion and participation, even in the face of its extraordinary diversity and enormous economic obstacles. And like Turkey, Indonesia has chosen to take bold steps to continue moving forward.

In fact, in the last year alone, Indonesia has arguably made more progress towards democratic reform than in its 57-year history. Indonesia's highest legislative body recently passed a series of amendments to its constitution that further solidify its democratic transition.

As important as those amendments that were passed is one that was not. Although some religious parties had requested that Islamic law, or sharia, be made Indonesia's national law, the national legislature rejected the measure --overwhelmingly. In so doing, they confirmed the powerful belief in religious tolerance that is shared by the great majority of Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the country that has the largest Muslim population of any in the world.

In a visit to Indonesia last month, Secretary of State Colin Powell praised Indonesia's support for the war on terror, which has been significant, and, importantly, he encouraged Indonesia to step up the pace of its legal reforms -- which will help encourage investors. His visit helped move our two nations closer to normal military-to-military cooperation-a step that ultimately will pave the way to more effective dealing with the threats posed by terrorists. Secretary Powell and Indonesian leaders, including President Megawati, discussed how the Indonesian armed forces would improve not only their military effectiveness, but their professionalism, through reforms that would safeguard against human rights abuses. That would be the aims of our cooperation.

My three years as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia gave me the unique opportunity to study and appreciate that beautiful country, its people, its rich cultures and its tradition of tolerance. My experiences there and in the years since have strengthened my appreciation of the common ground shared by East and West. Many people do not realize that Indonesia's Muslim majority makes it the largest Muslim country in the world. But even many who know that do not know that Islam is not the state religion, that the state accords equal status to the five major religions of its people.

There is every reason to believe that Indonesia, with its own traditions and culture, can move forward, because when people are free to work and keep what they produce, they work hard and organize creatively. And if we are serious about opposing terrorism, we also must be serious about helping Indonesia in its quest for a stable democracy and a stable economy.

Reaching out to individuals

Again, while we wage the war on terror, we are mindful of the larger war I spoke of earlier - the struggle against enemies of tolerance and freedom the world over. One tool we have in this struggle is our ability to reach out beyond governments to people and individuals. We must appeal to broad populations --especially those voices struggling to rise above the din of extremism, voices that tell us the Islam of Muhammad is not the religion of bin Laden and suicide bombers.

I am convinced that the vast majority of the world's Muslims have no use for the extreme doctrines espoused by groups such as al-Qaida or the Taliban. Very much to the contrary. They abhor terrorism. They abhor terrorists who have not only hijacked airplanes, but have attempted to hijack one of the world's great religions. They have absolutely no use for people who deny fundamental rights to women or who indoctrinate children with superstition and hatred.

In winning this larger struggle, it would be a mistake to think that we could be the ones to lead the way. But, we must do what we can to encourage the moderate Muslim voices. This is a debate about Muslim values that must take place among Muslims. But, it makes a difference when we recognize and encourage those who are defending universal values. And, when we give them moral support against the opposition they encounter, we are indeed helping to strengthen the foundations for peace.

When Egypt sentenced human rights campaigner Saad Eddin Ibrahim to seven years in prison, apparently for efforts to promote democracy, President Bush expressed concerns about Dr. Ibrahim's case directly to President Mubarak. As you know, President Bush also recently turned down requests for additional aid beyond the Camp David accords. And the State Department will continue to press our concerns with the Egyptian authorities.

When the American and noted Muslim scholar, Shayk Muhammed Hisham Kabbani, spoke at a State Department-sponsored panel on terrorism in January, 1999, he addressed what he called "the authentic, traditional voice of Islam ... which is moderation and tolerance and love ... and living in peace with all other faiths and religions." He went on [to] caution that there was, at that time, an imminent threat of catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil by Islamic extremists. Following his message, some Muslim organizations here in the United States publicly condemned him for "false and defamatory allegations against the Muslim community" and organized a boycott against him. Learning, tolerance, and progress - these are qualities that extremists today consider subversive.

In the same article I mentioned at the opening, Kuwaiti political science professor Shafeeq Ghabra describes studying here in the United States in the 1970s, a time when he'd been influenced by the anti-American slogans popular at the time. But, Ghabra's American professors surprised him with their tolerance. And "tolerance," he wrote, "even without accepting the other view, does have a moderating power on people and permits for the repetition of the cycle of understanding. Tolerance breeds tolerance. As a professor of political science at Kuwait University," he says, "I practice my old professor's technique on my own fundamentalist students."

This past Tuesday, an Egyptian-born resident of the United States reflected in the New York Times on what we might call the dangerous gap between her view of Islam and that of fellow-Egyptian Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers. Mona Eltahawy's Islam embodies tolerance and acceptance of others, a view that questions why Atta, allegedly in the name of Islam, was filled with such hatred. She writes of the debate here in America about how Islam fits into modern society, also noting that she is "saddened that such a debate has not taken off with much vigor in other parts of the world." But, Eltahawy concludes that the debate must continue, for, as she puts it, "only by reclaiming our own voice can we silence the zealots."

In his State of the Union address, President Bush spoke powerfully of "brave men and women" who do raise their voices to advocate the values of "human dignity, free speech, equal justice, respect for women and religious tolerance." They are out there, as we have seen. The system will progress only when we all become truly serious about supporting and encouraging these voices -- abroad and here at home.

I have spent a good deal of my career, some 20 years, thinking about East and West. And my experiences have convinced me that East and West share common ground. And it is on this ground that we can build the ancient dream of peace and freedom -- prosperity and security -- a dream that we share. On this ground we can build a better world, one that proceeds on a path from crisis to opportunity.

A year after the horrific attacks on America, we can affirm this truth: The single greatest threat to peace and freedom in our time is terrorism. So this truth we should also affirm: the future does not belong to terrorists. The future belongs to those, no matter their creed, who dream the oldest and noblest dream of all, the dream of peace and freedom. The future belongs to those who labor, with courage and commitment, to build a better world.