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Afghanistan Also Battleground of Ideologies
Thursday, September 5, 2002
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

"That means that some 62,000 more children -- boys and girls -- youngsters whose first lessons taught them that the sound of gunfire was a natural part of life -- can now go to school and learn new lessons, dream new dreams," he said. "And that is certainly one of the most far-reaching ways we can help these young Afghans build their own better world." But rebuilding Afghanistan physically is the lesser part of the battle. Rebuilding the country politically and socially is far more important. Wolfowitz said there are encouraging signs including the loya jirga electing Hamid Karzai as president of the two-year transitional government.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Afghanistan is not only the scene of a war on terrorism, but also the battleground of opposing Muslim ideologies, and the relationship of the Muslim world with the West.

The United States cannot just find and kill terrorists, it must offer the world's 1.5 billion Muslims an alternative to radical Islam, Wolfowitz said at the Brookings Institution here Sept. 5. The deputy secretary was the keynote speaker for a seminar putting the events of the last year in perspective.

"The arena where we will most readily be judged … is Afghanistan -- and that is one reason why it is so important to succeed there," he said.

Wolfowitz said the struggle in Afghanistan at its heart is the war over modernity, secularism, pluralism and economic development. He said the West must work to bridge a dangerous gap that separates the Muslim world and the West.

"Part of bridging this gap is helping to expose the lies at the heart of the terrorists' methods and convincing their potential followers that theirs is a blind alley leading to defeat and ignominy," Wolfowitz said.

Afghanistan has seen much progress since Sept. 11, 2001. "The Afghan people have been liberated. The Taliban is out of power and -- along with portions of al Qaeda -- they are killed, or dispersed and on the run," he said. "This fact alone has paved the way for other significant developments, some of which are transforming the landscape in that war- torn region, both literally and figuratively."
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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