The insurgency in Iraq will not deter the U.S., its friends, and allies from winning the global war against terrorism. The terror networks, the failed states that shelter them, and the outlaw regimes that seek weapons of mass destruction must all be faced.
Terrorists believe that “dictators should control every mind and tongue in the Middle East and beyond,” President George W. Bush said in his address to the United Nations General Assembly. The terrorists, he said, “believe that suicide and torture and murder are fully justified to serve any goal they declare”:
“In the last year alone, terrorists have attacked police stations, and banks, and commuter trains, and synagogues – and a school filled with children. This month in Beslan [Russia] we saw, once again, how the terrorists measure their success – in the death of the innocent, and in the pain of grieving families.”
Mr. Bush said that the children who were murdered in a school in Russia “did nothing to deserve such awful suffering.” Neither, he said, did the victims of terrorism elsewhere:
“The people of Madrid and Jerusalem and Istanbul and Baghdad have done nothing to deserve sudden and random murder. These acts violate the standards of justice in all cultures, and the principles of all religions. All civilized nations are in this struggle together, and all must fight the murderers.”
The U-N charter cites the need “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. . . .to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, [and] to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
“Let history also record that our generation of leaders followed through on these ideals, even in adversity,” said President Bush. “Let history show that in a decisive decade, members of the United Nations did not grow weary in our duties, or waver in meeting them.”