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Washington, D.C. - The Middle East has been a synonym for diplomatic challenges our whole lives. I hope that our children one day can tell their children it is the home of the Holy Land and no further explanation is needed.
We live in a world where trouble seems to be abundant. The world has become a much smaller place and at the same time increasingly more complex.
Our foreign policy for the last half century has been described by the word appeasement. It means that we were willing to support a dictator's oppression of his people as long as he did what we needed. We simply ignored the screams of his victims in exchange for regular trade or some such thing.
Some ask what is it that we did to these people to deserve their hatred. You have to step back and put yourself in their shoes to really find an answer.
On every continent in every corner of the planet you will find people that know of the United States of America. The United States is not just another country to them, we are utopia. The United States is a collection of wealth, might, and technology mixed into a culture where freedom is abundant.
Some people are oppressed by dictators, some by Mother Nature, others by disease, still more by economics. Regardless of the cause, the oppressed all share the same misery, tears, and despair.
Tonight, people are going to bed without food for yet another day. They know we have abundant food. Yet, we do not offer a helping hand. Some sleep in the prisons of their oppressors. They know we have the might to free them. But, we do not come. More lie in their death beds knowing that we have the treatments to save them, yet none is prescribed.
The United States is the kindest, most generous country to ever exist on this planet. We spend billions all over the world feeding, caring, protecting, and building.
It is easy to understand that when you know your liberator and he does not come, it must mean he doesn't care. Hearts begin to fill with hate. Evil takes root. Soon all of your problems only exist because the United States failed to solve them.
A young soldier in Baghdad told me a story of a local Iraqi who had questioned him. The local Iraqi wanted to know how a country as powerful and advanced as the United States could possibly send a man to the moon, defeat one of the world's largest armies in hours, and yet still not have the power restored to his apartment.
The Iraqi's perception is that we are all powerful. We watch them from space with technology they cannot even imagine. Surely if we wanted to turn on his electricity we could do so. He has no idea how large the problem is but he knows we can do anything. He was angry. Eventually his air conditioning began running and his anger cooled.
My point is the hatred towards America isn't always based on what we did but often simply not living up to the beliefs of what the oppressed think we are capable of doing.
Some are angry because in the past we made mistakes that compounded or even extended their misery. Many are angry because we fail to live up to their expectations. Ronald Reagan once said that our opposition is not ignorant it is just that so much of what they believe is just not true.
Today we are in a public relations battle across the globe. In this battle two things remain very important to keep in mind. First, we must understand the impressions and beliefs the suffering have of our capacity measured against our most generous efforts. Lastly, no matter how angry they become at the United States Government they do not let their anger diminish their beliefs that our country is the greatest most envied on earth.
For the United States the lesson must be -- as we head down a different path of foreign diplomacy - Evil that is ignored is indeed Evil that is assisted. The oppressed will always remember.
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