By David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Saying that victory in the war against terrorism will require an ideological battle, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice reviewed U.S. government efforts to combat Islamic extremism in the broader Middle East during an August 19 speech.

Speaking at the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), Rice emphasized the long-term nature of the conflict with terrorists. She noted that the 9/11 Commission called for a strategy as "political as much as it is military" to wage "a struggle of ideas" to defeat Islamic terrorism.

"President Bush and the members of his administration could not agree more" with that strategy, she said. Since the beginning of the war on terror, the president "has recognized that [it] is as much a conflict of visions as a conflict of arms." She quoted from the president's first State of the Union address, in which he said, "America will take the side of brave men and women who advocate values around the world, including the Islamic world, because we have a greater objective than eliminating threats and containing resentment. We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror."

The president, Rice continued, "has put those words into action." She proceeded to outline the elements of a strategy designed to bring freedom to the Middle East:

-- Supporting the fight by Afghanistan and Iraq against terrorists and extremism and the efforts of those countries to form democratic governments;

-- Working with NATO and the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations to help the broader Middle East and North Africa "create jobs, increase access to capital, improve literacy and education, protect human rights and make progress toward democracy;"

-- Carrying out the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) to link America with reformers in the Middle East through concrete projects;

-- Establishing a U.S.-Middle East free trade area within a decade;

-- Concluding a free trade agreement with Morocco;

-- Doubling funding for the National Endowment for Democracy to focus on "bringing free elections, free markets, free press, free speech and free labor unions to the Middle East;" and

-- Continuing support for Middle East broadcasting by increasing federal funding to $40 million, and following through on the creation of the Arabic-language Radio Sawa service, the Persian-language Radio Farda service, and a new Middle East television network, al-Hurra.

During a question-and-answer session after her speech, Rice said the war of ideas against Muslim extremism needs the broad engagement of American society, and not simply the efforts of government. She noted that during the Cold War, "we as a country mobilized ourselves not just in the government but in universities" to undertake area and language studies of the Soviet Union and East Europe. "And I know that we, as a society ... are not yet mobilized in that way.

"Great universities also ought to be looking at what they're doing to engage the Muslim world," Rice continued, "what they're doing to encourage people to study these cultures, what they're doing to train people in these languages. And I'm quite sure that if we as a country take on this challenge in the way that we took on the war of ideas in the Cold War, that we're going to succeed."

The national security advisor addressed the current problems and struggles in Afghanistan and Iraq, but emphasized how much progress each nation has made in a very short time. She reminded listeners that Iraqis are "people in their first stages of democratic development." She said Americans, who have a democracy now 230 years old, "need to be both more patient with people who are making these early steps, less critical of every twist and turn, less certain that every up-and-down is going to collapse the process, and more humble about how long it has taken us to get to a multiethnic democracy that works."

"[W]e have to recognize that democracy doesn't come overnight," she added.