ambassador speeches

The United States Appreciates Czech Efforts in the War on Terrorism

Ambassador Cabaniss for Lidové noviny
September 11, 2006

I would like to thank the Czech nation for its expressions of sorrow, public and private, on this day.   On this sad anniversary, Americans and the nations of the world recall the victims – nearly three thousand civilian men, women and children – who were killed in the attacks in New York and Washington.  We also reflect on what may lie ahead.

On September 11, 2001, America’s understanding of national security was changed forever.  We came face-to-face with our vulnerabilities as well as the grave potential threats posed by a new breed of terrorist.  As a national security issue, terrorism is no longer viewed as one among a number of assorted dangers to the United States, but a fundamental threat to America, its way of life, and an unambiguous danger to our friends and allies.

It is my sincere hope that my grandchildren’s generation will not experience an event like 9/11, but America cannot make this promise.  In addition to several armed nations who declare us to be their enemy, we confront evolving networks of transnational terrorists. 

We understand that terrorism has nothing to do with the respected tenets of Islam.  American is home to over 2 million Muslims.  The threats we confront today grow out of political alienation, grievances that can be blamed on others, and a sub-culture of conspiracy and hate speech designed to motivate violence.  Terrorism ultimately depends upon the appeal of ideology that glorifies the deliberate killing of innocents. 

On the anniversary of September 11, 2001, America recalls also the murder of innocents in terrorist attacks around the globe --, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Asia.  We rededicate ourselves to bringing the killers to justice and building a future free from the shadow of transnational terrorism.

“For those to whom much has been given, much is required,” President Bush reminds the United States.  My generation knows this call – America sacrificed much in order to confront fascism and stood steadfast through the long years of the Cold War.

The advance of freedom and human dignity through democracy and economic development is the long-term solution to today’s transnational terrorism.  We appreciate the special contributions the Czech Republic is making in this endeavor.  Your military professionals’ service in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans helps ensure there is a possibility of a stable future in areas just now emerging from decades of oppression. Czech NGO representatives are working there to build the institutions of democracy.  Your training of Iraq judges, renews a sense of pride and professionalism in their once proud judicial system.  Czechs, so imbued in culture and history, worked tirelessly to preserve rare books and manuscripts in northern Iraq. Your physicians’ treatment of otherwise terminally ill children is just one example of your generous support for humanitarian assistance in so many critical areas.  In addition, the Czech Republic speaks out eloquently to remind others that the people of small, oppressed nations like Cuba and Belarus aspire to progress through democratic means. 

Please accept my government’s thanks for your friendship in these challenging times.  It has been my honor and privilege to work with you.  America believes that through our common vigilance we will prevail in the war on terror.  We must prevail in order to preserve humanity’s noble freedoms. 

I am moved by the vision of President Thomas G. Masaryk.  As he departed New York on November 21, 1918, he said, “May the friendship and the community of interest of these two democracies, in co-operation with the other democracies of the world, furnish a firm basis for the establishment of a new order in a transformed world.”