This morning, Dr. Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 Commission. I did not have the opportunity to watch very much of Dr. Rice's testimony. However, I wanted to post this excerpt. I think it provides an interesting and articulate perspective on the entire War on Terrorism.
Dr. Rice said:
"The terrorist threat to our Nation did not emerge on September 11th, 2001. Long before that day, radical, freedom-hating terrorists declared war on America and on the civilized world....The terrorists were at war with us, but we were not yet at war with them. For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America's response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient. Historically, democratic societies have been slow to react to gathering threats, tending instead to wait to confront threats until they are too dangerous to ignore or until it is too late....
Despite Nazi Germany's repeated violations of the Versailles Treaty and its string of provocations throughout the mid-1930s, the Western democracies did not take action until 1939. The U.S. Government did not act against the growing threat from Imperial Japan until the threat became all too evident at Pearl Harbor. And, tragically, for all the language of war spoken before September 11th, this country simply was not on a war footing. Since then, America has been at war. And under President Bush's leadership, we will remain at war until the terrorist threat to our Nation is ended."
