September 11, 2001 is a day that will redefine history.
Before the tragic events that day occurred, articles appeared in journals and newspapers accusing the US government of overstating the terrorist threat. This is no longer the case. The terrorist attacks that were launched, on that day in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania claimed victims from some 88 nations, from our close neighbors Canada and Mexico to countries as far away as Australia and Zimbabwe, and in large numbers from India and Pakistan. For many countries, including the US, Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, the horrors of Sept. 11 claimed the most lives of any terrorist incident in their history. For the US, it was its bloodiest day since the 1862 Civil War Battle of Antietam.
The attacks may have been conceived as a blow against the US, but in reality they were attacks against all of humanity and civilization itself.
The war we are waging will be a long struggle with many dimensions. Our goal is to eliminate the international terrorist threat to people, installations, and other interests. We will do this by: Smoking out terrorists from their hiding places, draining the swamp where terrorists find safe haven, pressuring states to stop supporting terrorism, preventing planned terrorist attacks, and bolstering the capabilities of our friends and allies to combat terrorism.
The nations of the world are banding together to eliminate the terrorism scourge. Numerous multilateral organizations have issued declarations of support -- including the UN, the EU, the Organization of American States, the Organization of African Unity, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the APEC forum -- and many others have expressed their strong solidarity.
I recently traveled to Brussels where I met with the North Atlantic Council. I made the case that the al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden was responsible for what happened on the Sept 11. I traced the history of this organization, its recent activities, and the events that occurred just before and after that date.
In response, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said that the facts contained in the briefing were "clear and compelling" and point "conclusively to an al-Qaeda role in the attacks." As a result of the briefing, NATO concluded that the attacks were directed from abroad and will "therefore be regarded as an action covered by Article V of the Washington Treaty, which states that an armed attack on one or more of the allies in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all." This was the first time Article V was invoked in the history of the NATO alliance.
NATO allies have agreed to provide the US with the wide range of assistance that it had requested. This includes unlimited use of their airspace, base facilities, seaports, logistics, extra security for US forces in Europe, intelligence sharing, and early warning aircraft. AWACS surveillance planes belonging to NATO are currently patrolling the skies over the US as a result of the Article V invocation.
The Organization of American States invoked the Rio Treaty, which also covers collective self-defense. OAS foreign ministers, meeting in Lima, Peru on the day of the attacks, were the first to condemn them.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference -- the most important and comprehensive grouping of Muslim states, 56 in all -- strongly condemned the savage Sept. 11 attacks and unequivocally declared that terrorism is never sanctioned by Islam. We believe the face of terror is not the true face of Islam. Terrorism is a perversion of religion, and those who hijacked the airplanes on Sept. 11 also hijacked the faith they claim.
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