Seven Theses on Today's Terrorism

1. Victory is possible if we understand, first of all, what we are up against. This is the classical maxim of the great Chinese thinker, Sunt Zu: ?know thy enemy?.
2. In order to achieve our victory we must accept and understand that we are at War. Obviously, not a conventional or traditional War, but a new form of conflict. A war that we never look for, but a War that fell upon us just because the implacable logic of our enemy. Bin Laden declared War on us, on the democratic, prosperous, free and basically laicist Western society. And he declared a total War where, according to his view, there is neither room for negotiations nor peace agreements.
3. The fact that we are in an all-out war - them or us - means that we must pursue an active policy, one that seeks to ensure a victory, rather than simply cobbling together a provisional solution to the problem. In other words, a policy of containment, which was applied to the former USSR, is not viable. Whether good or bad, Moscow accepted the game of spheres of influence, whilst the geo-strategic frontiers were always very clear. Islamic fundamentalists do not recognize or respect any frontiers at all. They attack us on our own ground because that is their favorite theatre of war. And they will continue to do so however much we attempt to hold back the tide in the Middle East. Who can feel free from threats when Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq, to name but a few, have set up fundamentalist-style republics with clear links to Al Qaeda? Who can claim that we are capable of fencing them in within that region? Furthermore, let us not forget either that this region, the Gulf, also has the largest oil reserves in the world. Quite frankly, I do not find these options either plausible or reassuring. Terrorists would never have more resources at their disposal to carry out their sinister plans against all of us.
4. To do so we must know that we are fighting against not only a group or terrorist movement, but against an ideology. Thus, going over and chasing the terrorists is not the end of the problem. We also have to fight their cause. The War against terror can only succeed if we are finally able to eliminate the deeper root of its existence: hate of modernity and Western values, a feeling that circulates throughout the Middle East with particular virulence. Along with intelligence, the police and the armed forces, we must also fight the battle to win hearts and minds. And this inevitably means transforming the living conditions that exist throughout the Arab world. Theocracy and corruption are guardians of nothing more than hate and resentment. Only economic liberalization and political openness can offer a ray of hope to millions of souls who are only able to find solace today in religious intolerance.
5. Every war has its Central Front. In the Cold War it was Germany; today, in the war against Islamic terror, it is Iraq. This we must understand and accept. Those who have chosen a political and strategic agenda made of antiamericanism or against the US hegemony, are blind to the many perils of failing in Iraq. They are blind to the reading fundamentalist terrorists will do in such a scenario, the feeling of success they will experience, and the new impetus they will gain.
6. Being the Islamic terrorism is a global phenomenon, international cooperation is an indisputable fact. However, we should not overestimate or delude ourselves as to its possible results. International collaboration is always difficult, and this is even more the case within the field of counter-terrorism. It is enough to tell you, for example, that only following the 11th September atrocities did the European Union accept a shared definition of terrorism, on the initiative of my Government. Until that time various EU Member States had not even included terrorism in their penal codes as a specific crime. There are also diverse definitions of what terrorism is here, depending on whether you are dealing with the State Department, the Pentagon or the FBI.
7. Finally, I have to remind you that the new terrorism does not put an end to the old forms of terror. Unfortunately we know that in Spain, having suffered ETA attacks for more that 30 years now. But there is something we must understand and be clear about: Violence and terror must be condemned in all circumstances. There are no, and can be no, good and bad forms of terrorism.

Go read the whole thing. It's powerful. This man's honor and courage shine through, and his nation should be ashamed that they have failed to live up to his example.