Speeches & Remarks 2006

"What We Honor Five Years On"

Mandagmorgen,

September 11, 2006

Thank you for inviting me here this morning. It is a pleasure to be with you.

I want to particularly thank Noa Reddington for having the audacity to approach me at a family dinner at Grøften a few weeks ago to respectfully request that I visit with this esteemed group of intellectuals, former journalists and academics on this notable day. I have been looking forward to this gathering. I am particularly pleased to be here with Lars Findsen. I am a great admirer of Mr. Findsen's, the reasons for which will become clear later in my remarks.

Today is a special day for me. For one thing, it is the first anniversary of the official commencement of my role as America's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. Because of that milestone, I was asked recently to comment, by one of your local papers on the things I have learned in the first year in Denmark. I reported what I have learned about your important traditions; your having the oldest flag in the world, your family-centric focus, and the important and enduring role of your thousand-year monarchy. I commented on your love of nature, and the outdoors, and your commitment to healthy living. I admired your commitment to alternative energy sources and your desire to wean yourselves from hydrocarbon dependency.

And I commented on your interest in America's entrepreneurial culture, our willingness to take risks, and our religious faith. I even commented on the fact that you appreciate a self-deprecating sense of humor, and that almost everyone in Denmark has heard the story about how the American Ambassador was locked in the bathroom on the morning of his first big public speech.

And I have learned that all of these things, while important, don't matter quite as much anymore to America's ambassadors in the world, and this is because of the other anniversary that is commemorated today, the 5th anniversary of September 11, 2001.

The coincidence of these two anniversaries is not lost on me, of course. I have been thinking about the intersection of these two dates since the moment I learned that my credentials presentation would coincide with our commemoration of the 4th anniversary of September 11th. As one who believes in destiny, of a divine purpose for each of our lives, I would like to believe that there is some hidden connection between these two anniversaries.

I had a hint at that connection when I first read my letter of instructions for this assignment from President Bush. Historically, each President sends a letter to his new ambassadors as he or she embarks on their mission to represent America in the world. Historically, those letters have been inspired but general tomes about promoting America's interests, pursuing America's foreign policy, advancing our national goals, and increasing trade.

Since 9/11, the letters sent out by President Bush have been different. The opening paragraph of the instructions to me were very simple. I quote: "Your task is to help in advancing the cause of freedom by waging a relentless global war against terrorism, to defeat those who seek to harm us and our friends." Yes, there are additional instructions, to "overcome the faceless enemies of human dignity including disease, starvation and poverty."

And to "assist America's citizens, institutions and businesses as they pursue their charitable and commercial interests." But the instruction to "wage a relentless global war against terrorism" was at the heart of my marching orders, and it has become the sine qua non, the focal point, the essence, the overriding purpose, of America's foreign policy, and the guide for the daily work of America's ambassadors.

That is just one way life has changed for America since 9/11. Of course, it has changed in other ways too: it has changed the way we travel, where we go, how we get there, what we take with us on a trip, and how much time we allow before departure.

It has changed the way we measure our friends. As President Bush noted last week, "for generations, America's policy in the Middle East was to pursue stability at the expense of liberty." But that policy helped to create conditions where anger and resentment grew, and radicalism thrived, and terrorists found willing recruits. "9/11 made it clear that the path to long-term security was to change the course of the Middle East." So America thereafter embraced countries who would commit to advance freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and who would commit to the war against terror.

9/11 also changed the way that Americans look at ourselves. As a Time magazine columnist asked this week, who would have thought that the war against terror would "require a national seminar on when it is okay for Americans to torture prisoners and whether near drowning counts? Or a debate on which clauses of the Constitution might be expendable?" Americans have become more focused on matters of security: security of course from terrorists, but also their own personal security, the security of our retirement system, and the security of our health care system. They worry more about the future. Polls suggest that Americans are less hopeful about the future, and have less confidence. As the Time reporter put it, "Americans are now more resigned than resolved to the next twist in the plot."

And, of course, 9/11 has shifted the focus of our bilateral relationships. Our energies as diplomats are no longer devoted primarily to maintaining relations with the Danish government, and promoting trade, but are now focused on working with Denmark to transform the world we live in, to attack the root cause of our insecurity: Islamic extremism and jihad-inspired terrorism. That is why, for example, in the fall of last year we launched an initiative to reach out to the ethnic community in Denmark. We met with the Ethnic Minority Council in Randers, visited Bazar Vest in Aarhus, invited young Muslim leaders to lunch at the residence, and shot basketball with young Muslim boys in Gellerup Park. Our activities such as these were in place before the Mohammed cartoon crisis, but of course our efforts were increased subsequent to that controversy. One of our more memorable of these events took place on a sweltering day two months ago, on the 3rd of July, the day before America's celebration of independence, in the ethnic commune of Vollsmose in Odense.

On that day, accompanied by the minister of integration, Rikki Hvilshøj, members of the media, organizers from a Danish NGO, Francisco Elson of the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets and the WNBA's Andrea Stinson, we engaged with young Muslim boys and girls in a game of basketball. I believe that sports in general, and basketball in particular, are great training grounds for the values of teamwork, compassion, equality of opportunity, tolerance and mutual respect; in other words, the values of democracy. In addition to these lessons, the young people of Vollsmose that afternoon participated in lessons on healthy living, art, music, dance; all designed to build relationships in this critical ethnic community in Denmark.
I saw in that community what I had seen in other ethnic communities in Denmark, that the vast majority of Muslims want to live in peace, they like living in a Western society, and they reject extremism. But this is also the same kind community of from which the homegrown terrorists of London, Madrid and Frankfurt were spawned.

After last week, we now know that Denmark must also be added to that list, from the very community of Vollsmose that we visited on July 3rd.

Lars Findsen and his colleagues have spent a great deal of time in that community in the past week. This is the first opportunity I have had to see Lars since the arrests of last Monday, and I would like to publicly congratulate him, Justice Minister Lene Espersen and our PET friends, some of whom are with us today and for their serious, dedicated hard work, and the results they are getting. Your work is paying off.

These arrests and the work of Lars and his colleagues answer the question posed by Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab, al-Zawahiri, al-Zarqawi, Hezbollah, and the regimes that support them. Their question is this, " If we frighten your public enough, if we make you live in daily fear of unjust acts, if we show you that we can bring terror to your streets, if we do all these things to you, will you change your policies, abandon the dream of expanding democracy and freedom, and leave us alone to impose medieval regimes of tyranny and oppression in the Middle East, where women have no rights, girls will not be educated, where free speech is not tolerated, and other religions are forbidden?"

It is the same question posed to you the first week of February this year when these same regimes, using the excuse of "cartoons," orchestrated the torching of embassies, the burning of flags, and the hanging in effigy of your prime minister, all in an attempt to intimidate you to withdraw from active engagement in global affairs.

You answered them then, and you have answered them again now.

Your post-cartoon actions to expand your troop presence in Afghanistan, to commit a C-130 aircraft to the UN operations in that theatre, to extend your presence in Iraq, to engage in aggressive diplomacy at the UN Security Council in search of secure borders and a sustainable peace for Israel and Lebanon, and your willingness to change your laws to provide your government the tools to protect each one of us, and your bold preemptive arrests last week in Odense, all of these acts answer the question posed by the terrorists. And your answer is, "No, we will not back away, we will not back down, we will not give up the fight for freedom, and we will not give into your threats to our security."

And for that answer, all of America is grateful.

My friends back home, and occasionally my American colleagues in other European capitals, often ask, "Why is Denmark so engaged in the fight for freedom and security?"

Why is Denmark, they ask, this little country, so firm in NATO, the EU, and the UN Security Council? Why are they so engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo? Why do they have the most soldiers per capita on international missions of any European country? Why are they taking such a lead on strengthening their laws to fight terrorism? Are they just "following America," some ask? My answer is no, they are not just following America. It is because Danes have a long memory, and those memories anchor an abiding commitment to freedom. You have not forgotten your own experience with tyranny, when the midnight knock at the door meant that your brother or father was being dragged out of bed at gun point; when children could not risk being seen wearing the red white and blue colors of the Allied forces, when the home in which my family and I live in Charlottenlund served as the home of the Nazi high commander, and the neighbors lived in daily fear.

It is perhaps part of the reason that you understand and are willing to confront what is at stake in this war on terror.

As President Bush said last week: "Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist allies made their intentions clear. The question is: will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say? America and our coalition partners have made our choice. We are taking the words of the enemy seriously. We are on the offensive and we will not rest, we will not retreat, and we will not withdraw from the fight, until this threat to civilization is removed."

In the 20th century, freedom has contended with the forces of darkness and tyranny on two occasions. This time, to quote the President, "the battle is unfolding in a different region – the broader Middle East. This time, we are not waiting for our enemies to gather their strength. This time, we are confronting them before they gain the capacity to inflict unspeakable damage on the world, and we are confronting their hateful theology before it takes root."

And with Denmark as a noble, and courageous ally, we can see as the President said, "a day when people across the Middle East have governments that honor their dignity, and unleash their creativity, and count their votes. We see a day when across this region citizens are allowed to express themselves freely, women have full rights, and children are educated and given the tools necessary to succeed in life. And we see a day when all the nations of the Middle East are allies in the cause of peace. We fight for this day, because the security of our own citizens depends on it."

This will be our response to 9/11, and this will be the legacy of our generation.

We are thankful that Denmark is with us in this fight, and I thank you for inviting me to join you this morning.