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MUNICH, GERMANY - Senator Joe Lieberman challenged Europe's national security leaders on Sunday to quickly and aggressively reform NATO's mission and membership to combat the growing global threat of terrorism. In remarks before the 38th Annual Wehrkunde Security Conference, Lieberman warned that the next great danger to the NATO Alliance are the agents of extreme Islamist terrorism, who are seeking to build a "theological" Iron Curtain by exploiting the widespread poverty and isolation in the Muslim world. "The best way to fight those poisons is with their antidotes: freedom and opportunity-exactly what NATO nations have to offer," said Lieberman, who joined Senator John McCain in leading the U.S. delegation to the conference. "If we stand together as an Alliance and apply our moral, political, economic, and, if necessary, military might with patience and precision, we will not fail." But to succeed in this endeavor, Lieberman said, NATO must adapt to the new contours of this new threat and sharpen its focus and its forces. In particular, Lieberman highlighted four key points: - COMMITMENT TO COOPERATION: International partnership is essential to defeating terrorism, Lieberman said. "The attacks of September 11th and the response in Afghanistan thus far should settle the question, with which Americans again recently flirted, of whether unilaterism can be an adequate answer."
- NATO'S ROLE AND REACH: The Alliance must be prepared to act beyond its physical borders to defend its interests and values, Lieberman said. "Technology has collapsed geographical distinctions to the point that today, a plot conceived in North Africa, South America or Southeast Asia can pose just as serious a threat to NATO members' security as an aggressive military movement by a nearby nation."
- STRENGTHENING EUROPEAN FORCES: Lieberman challenged European nations to close the growing capabilities gap separating the U.S. military from its Atlantic partners. "America's military is the best in the world because we spend a lot to buy, build, and bolster it. It's time for all NATO nations to overcome internal political resistance and place an immediate priority on upgrading their capabilities."
- ENLARGING NATO MEMBERSHIP: Reasserting NATO's open-door policy, Lieberman urged the Alliance to admit any democratic nation that "meets NATO's criteria and is able to be a net contributor to the security of the whole." Lieberman cited several nations - Estonia, Latvia, Lithunia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania - as strong potential candidates.
"A rising tide of successive and expanding waves of freedom has now brought us to this unprecedented moment in human history, where no force rivals democracy. We should celebrate the fact that the collective will of millions of individuals, expressed through their democratic governments, is the single greatest power in the world today," Lieberman said in conclusion. "That power cannot and will not yield to terrorists' evil designs and deeds. That power can and will empower and elevate the great majority of people in Islamic countries who want to join the new world, not wage Jihad against it." Text of Speech
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