|
September 11 is a day of mourning and reflection in the United States. Five years ago, on a day that horrified the world, a group of terrorists took advantage of our open society by hijacking four commercial airplanes and using them to murder nearly three thousand innocent people.
The diversity of the September 11 victims is truly astonishing. They came from over seventy countries and represented all of the major religious faiths. Though the majority of the dead were American citizens, hundreds of foreign tourists and businesspeople also perished. Killing businessmen, firemen, policemen, and maintenance workers shows us that the terrorists’ lust for murder was not in any way tempered by consideration for the victims or the plight of their families.
In the immediate aftermath of this horrible crime, President Bush committed the United States to fight terrorists on their home territory, preventing them from carrying out plans to commit even more savage crimes. In due course, U.S. troops and their Afghan allies engaged and defeated the Taliban government in Afghanistan. In so doing, we removed a regime that existed only to imprison its own people and relegate them to a life of medieval barbarity, while giving the al Qaeda terrorists free reign to plan and carry out mass murder from its soil.
Not content with murdering thousands of people in the United States, al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates sought out and found other victims. Since 2001, hundreds have died from the savage shootings and bombings that have killed commuters in Madrid and London, oil workers in Saudi Arabia, diplomats and their families in Pakistan, guests at a wedding in Jordan, tourists in Tunisia, and ordinary people in Casablanca, Baghdad, and Bali.
The al Qaeda terrorists who plotted the destruction of the World Trade Center had other nefarious goals. They envisioned a wave of xenophobic anger to engulf the United States, targeting foreigners and Muslims. They sought to drive foreigners from the Middle East. They expected the global economy to collapse. And they were certain no foreign country would freeze their bank accounts, close down their front companies, attack their bases, and hunt down their members.
They were wrong.
Our fight against global terrorism has seen great successes. The multiple arrests in August of would-be aircraft suicide bombers by law enforcement officers in Britain are just one example of smart police work and international cooperation. Indeed, many of our investigations can not be made public for fear of alerting the terrorists and their allies to the extent and nature of the measures that have over the last five years prevented them from successfully committing another terrorist outrage targeting innocent lives in the United States.
America continues to embody the hopes and dreams of the millions of immigrants who have flocked to our country in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Though we must now employ stricter controls than in the past, the United States welcomes legitimate tourists, students, and commerce like no other country in the world. Our economy remains the world’s most robust, and our foreign policy aim is to help countries achieve democratization where tyranny has ruled unchallenged for centuries. We know that where there are free people and free economies, terrorists will not survive.
President Bush has committed the United States to a long-term fight against global terrorism, a fight we must win. We enjoy the friendship and cooperation of dozens of countries in this vital effort. Mexico has been a steadfast ally in this effort—not to serve U.S. interests—but to serve the interests of the Mexican people who do not wish to see terrorist attacks on their own or any other soil again.
We may never know precisely how many Mexicans died on September 11. Some sources put the number at fifteen, others estimate many more. We do know that a good number of Mexicans were hard at work in the World Trade Center that day to support their families in the United States and in Mexico. We can honor their memory by supporting our common efforts to make the United States and Mexico safe from those who wish to do us harm.
|
