For Immediate Release
October 4, 2004

Global Message

From remarks by Secretary of State Powell to the Development, Democracy and Security Bretton Woods Committee Conference, 9/30/04

The promotion and establishment of democracy is necessary because democracy is the ultimate enemy of terrorism and that which will eventually defeat terrorism.

America is fortunate that it hasn't been struck again in the manner it was hit on 9/11. The country is safer than that terrible day, but not yet safe. Under President Bush's leadership we have tightened our borders while not compromising the openness that defines the United States as a society.

The United States would lose its character, and would fail to communicate to the world the nature of our society if restrictions kept people from coming to America. President Bush and his Administration are working hard to find the right balance.

President Bush and his Administration have achieved unprecedented intelligence and law enforcement cooperation not only in the United States, but with dozens of countries around the world to fight terrorism, and to stop the proliferation and the transfer of weapons of mass destruction.

The United States has proudly led coalitions that have unseated two detestable and dangerous regimes: the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's reign of blood and terror in Iraq. Some 55 million people have been freed from lives of fear, repression, and stagnation.

Two nations now have a chance to build a future in freedom, and to be a beacon of hope and justice to all of their neighbors.

The fury of terrorists and remnants of old regimes can neither match the determination of the Afghan and Iraqi peoples to be free nor the determination of the United States and its allies to stand by these people until they are free.

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