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Commencement
Address
Delivered By Senator Patrick Leahy
At Norwich University
Northfield, Vermont
May 11, 2003
“THE USES OF AMERICAN
POWER IN A UNIPOLAR WORLD”
When the invitation arrived to be with you today, my close partnership
with
Norwich University made it an easy one to accept. And the conclusion
of the war in Iraq and the ongoing wider campaign against
international terrorism also make this a good time to reflect on where
we have been and where we are going.
The marriage of American technology with American military power is
not new. But decades of research and development and training reached
new heights in
Iraq. You are part of this
transformation. Norwich is a leader in computer security. Some of
you already have the important skills to countering cyber-threats.
The new Counterterrorism and Cybercrime Center that we worked together
to establish builds on that foundation. And so does the new Readiness
and Regional Technology Center and armory here that we also built
together, and dedicated just yesterday.
In
the last five years we have seen our military forces prevail in three
very different, and difficult, situations.
In
Kosovo, we used air power to stop ethnic cleansing and prevent a local
conflict from spiraling out of control in
Central Europe.
In
Afghanistan, our special forces teamed up with an opposition Afghan
force to disrupt al Qaeda and overthrow the Taliban.
And in
Iraq, we used high technology and a large conventional force to end
the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein.
While these wars may have appeared easily won from the comfortable,
safe distance of our living rooms, we Vermonters know that war is
never safe or comfortable.
The toll of war is both terrible and terrifying, for soldiers and
civilians alike.
Vermont
lost two of her finest sons in Iraq, from opposite ends of our small
state. Chief Warrant Officer Erik Halvorsen of Bennington died on
April 4 in a helicopter crash. Corporal Mark Evnin of South
Burlington was killed on April 3 when his Marine unit was in a
firefight as they crossed the Tigris River in the drive to Baghdad.
We mourn with their families, and we honor their courage, their
patriotism, and their sacrifice.
We
all know
Vermont is a unique state. It is a state where neighbors talk to each
other. It is a state where people who disagree can still respect each
other's views. I remember, during a town meeting, I remarked that I
was the only Democratic senator ever elected from Vermont .... Someone
from the back of the room shouted "Yeah, and we won't make that
mistake again."
And Vermonters have strong -- even passionate -- views about the world
we live in and about the use of American power in this world.
We
have witnessed a war that was won -- thankfully -- with a minimum of
casualties. We have shown, again, that our military power is
unmatched in the world. And we have liberated the Iraqi people from
a tyrant.
Our unprecedented military strength provides us with tantalizing
options. But as a great power it also brings with it
responsibilities, and unique risks. And sometimes a great power acts
most wisely when it chooses not to use force. How we address the
issue of the use of American power will shape our country and our
world for decades to come. Your generation will have a major role in
those decisions.
History has shown that nations with unmatched military power have,
time and again, made tragic mistakes that have led to their downfall.
The Romans, the Ottomans, and the
Soviet Union are but a few. Some of
these governments became so obsessed with extending their empires far
beyond their borders that their core values as a society withered and
the outside world, or their own people, turned violently against
them.
We
must learn from history. We must remember the value of humility, and
that our overwhelming military supremacy is no cure for the many
challenges that we continue to face at home -- racial disparities,
over-crowded schools, millions of Americans without health insurance,
and factory closings and job losses on a scale we have not faced for
quite awhile.
We
must also recognize that with the way the
United States is able to
fight and win wars today, the use of military force becomes an
increasingly tantalizing option. News channels portray war like a
video game, with computer graphics, bull’s eye explosions, and icons
standing for troop divisions moved around on the screen. The horror
of war is obscured by TV simulations and arm chair analysts.
Far more often, it is those
who have never experienced the paralyzing fear and brutality of combat
who are the first and the loudest advocates of going to war.
As we move into the 21st
Century, one of our crucial challenges is to strike the right balance
in navigating the difficulties of an increasingly complex and
dangerous world. We need a foreign policy that is solidly grounded in
international cooperation, that strengthens our relations with key
friends and allies, and that promotes our basic values.
While the media focuses on international terrorism and continued
tensions in the Middle East, we also must confront equally serious
problems that face Americans and the rest of the world that are
receiving too little attention: AIDS, which claims 70,000 lives each
week; 11 million children who die needlessly each year from diseases
that can be easily prevented; poverty that engulfs a third of the
world's people; and the SARS virus that is spreading across the globe.
More of our foreign policy needs to be focused on working with other
nations to solve these inter-connected, global problems that affect
billions of people. They threaten to destroy the social fabric of
entire countries. They produce the misery and hopelessness that can
lead to conflict and produce the breeding grounds for terrorism.
If
we ignore them they can fester to produce the conditions that
ultimately require the use of American military power. We should be
working to build the alliances that are needed to solve them. It is
what the world expects of us, and it is a role we should embrace.
Too often, we have sent the opposite message. In recent years we have
taken unprecedented steps to withdraw from treaties on the
environment, international justice, and nuclear non-proliferation --
while offering no effective alternatives. We engaged in
finger-pointing and name-calling with some of our closest allies,
including our neighbors
Canada and Mexico.
And we have weakened the United Nations as an institution that plays a
key role in dealing with issues of global poverty, peace and
security.
A
great nation like ours should not behave this way.
Working with others to solve global problems can be tedious. It is
often frustrating, especially when some nations oppose us simply
because we are the
United States. But ridiculing our
friends, allies, and the United Nations has done nothing to enhance
our security. It has only served to make solving global problems more
difficult and damage the way the world thinks about America.
Cooperation with other nations will often be more important to our
security than all the military power we can muster. We should work to
make the United Nations more effective by helping to make it better,
instead of destructively tearing it down.
There are times when military force will be required and when we may
have to act alone. This is why we have the best trained, best
equipped military in the world. But even with our superior strength,
war involves great risks and uncertainties. We should send our
soldiers into combat only when there is a real threat to our security,
and only after we have worked exhaustively with our allies, in good
faith, to avoid war.
The messy challenges we face in
Iraq today should remind us that
military might that is wielded with arrogance and justified with
simplistic slogans is no substitute for a deep understanding of
another country's history, culture, religion. We can all take pride
in the fall of Saddam Hussein, but we have also taken on a long period
of difficult and costly nation-building in an ethnically divided
country with no history of democracy.
This is not the first time in our nation's history that we have faced
great challenges and questions about American power: The Cold War and
World War II are obvious examples. We learned important lessons from
those difficult times in our history. One lesson is that we often had
to make sacrifices to achieve some of our greatest triumphs. We
implemented military drafts, rationed basic goods, and devised the
Marshall Plan to rebuild
Europe.
We
also learned that when we trampled on our core values, it led to some
of the darkest moments in our history. As we work together to shape
our foreign policy we must promote our values abroad -- democracy,
human rights, and tolerance for the beliefs of others. Too often in
the past, we have paid only lip service to these values, or we have
applied inconsistent standards depending on whether a government
claimed to be anti-communist, anti-drugs, or anti-terrorist.
And our first responsibility must be to uphold the basic freedoms that
our country is based on, here at home.
Taylor Branch is the author of a powerful book about the American
civil rights movement, Pillar of
Fire. I remember something that he once told an
interviewer: that we Americans often do not realize what an
inspiration our ideals are to oppressed people around the world. He
pointed out that protestors in democracy movements from
South Africa to Tiananmen
Square to Red Square all sang "We Shall Overcome" -- a very American
song. Those ideals for which our flag stands -- liberty, opportunity,
and equality under the law -- can only be realized if we devote
ourselves to defending them.
You are all examples of the promise that
America offers the world. Your degrees
from this great university will open doors that others will find
closed. It will give you a chance to serve your country and to put
your hands to the wheel of history in ways that can change the
future.
May you have the good fortune to find yourselves, first by losing
yourselves, in causes bigger than yourselves.
Be
grateful for this opportunity. Most importantly, make the most of
this opportunity.
Good luck to each of you, and congratulations.
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