I recount this history because once again we face the same kind of
challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of
fascism.
Today, another enemy -- a different kind of enemy -- has also made
clear its intentions -- in places like New York, Washington, D.C.,
Bali, London, Madrid, and Moscow. But it is apparent that many have
still not learned history's lessons.
We need to face the following questions:
* With the growing lethality and availability of weapons, can we
truly afford to believe that somehow vicious extremists can be appeased?
* Can we really continue to think that free countries can negotiate a separate peace with terrorists?
* Can we truly afford the luxury of pretending that the threats
today are simply "law enforcement" problems, rather than fundamentally
different threats, requiring fundamentally different approaches?
* And can we truly afford to return to the destructive view that
America -- not the enemy -- is the real source of the world's trouble?
These are central questions of our time. And we must face them.
We hear everyday of new plans, new efforts, to murder Americans and
other free people. Indeed, the plot recently discovered that would have
killed hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of innocent men, women, and
children on planes coming from Britain to the United States should have
demonstrated to all that the enemy is serious, lethal, and relentless.
But this is still -- in 2006 -- not well recognized or fully
understood. It seems that in some quarters there is more of a focus on
dividing our country, than acting with unity against the gathering
threats.
We find ourselves in a strange time:
Donald Rumsfeld in a speech to the American Legion - 8/30/06