Senator Lieberman addressed the Munich Conference on Security Policy on Sunday. The senator took a not so subtle jibe at John Kerry, saying America is “a principled nation, not a pariah nation. He also responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who two days ago asked the same audience, “What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master.” Here is an excerpt from Lieberman’s speech:
Much as the founding of NATO in 1949 put to rest doubts about America’s long-term commitment to the security of Europe, so too would a global NATO end any uncertainty that exists today about the West’s long-term commitment to democracy in nations around the world, including, particularly, in the Muslim world. It would make clear that our presence in places like Afghanistan is not just a temporary arrangement, subject to the whims of public opinion and the leaders of the moment, but part of a deeper, formal alliance bound by common principles from which we cannot and will not withdraw.
These are the same principles enshrined in the original NATO charter, which declares the alliance is founded on “democracy, individual liberty, and rule of law.”
These principles know no borders-and they are under attack today across many borders. Our enemies are clear about who they are. Radical Islamists have stated openly, in the words of one jihadist group: “We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it.”
I cannot speak about the global war of ideas without also acknowledging our struggle in Iraq.
I understand the frustration and anger that the Iraq war has created in America and toward America throughout the world, but I ask that those feelings not blind us to the larger truths about the enemy we are fighting, and about our shared interest in its defeat.
We are fighting in Iraq against the same violent ideology of radical Islam that NATO is fighting in Afghanistan and against which so many of our societies are struggling worldwide. The asymmetrical war of ideas I have discussed is irretrievably bound up in the outcome of the war in Iraq, as our common enemy keenly appreciates-at times it seems, better than we do.
As we have seen in Iraq, America is capable of mistakes large and small, but we are a principled nation, not a pariah nation.
Surely principled in the sense that America remains the indispensable nation in the fight for freedom throughout the world, precisely because we are willing to put our powers-economic, diplomatic, and, yes, military-in pursuit of our principles. But we have not and cannot act alone.
President Putin said yesterday that there is -one single center of power-in the world today. He is correct.
But that power is not the United States. It is the power of freedom.
Freedom speaks all languages and knows no borders. Walls and prisons cannot contain it, and totalitarianism cannot defeat it.
But the cause of freedom does not belong to one nation alone. On the contrary, the greatest triumphs of democracy in the twentieth century were achieved by the strength of our alliances, including particularly NATO.
Today once again our community of democratic nations faces profound challenges, and we have encountered disappointing setbacks.
But these challenges must call us now to remember who we are and what we stand for and to summon the will to defend both.
Rather than falling victim to doubt or exhaustion or division, let us sustain and strengthen our faith in all that binds and animates us-the values of freedom and tolerance and justice and democracy. Let us move forward, united and confident in our ultimate victory-the victory of freedom.
