Issue No.
13376
THE TIES and technologies of our interconnected world mean that threats are emerging and challenging our national security faster than ever before and, as I said, in the cyber world, at network speed. As a nation and as a government, we have to be just as fast in responding to those threats…
And so we usher in, really, a new era of engagement…
I know there’s been a lot of debate and perhaps some confusion by what we mean by the term “engagement”. It means laying out a strategic vision of America’s role in the world in an open and transparent way…
Rather than focusing solely on the threats that endanger us, we focus on the shared interests and common aspirations that unite America with the world…
There is the challenge of Afghanistan and Pakistan… We’re hoping to make it clear that we will neither maintain a permanent military force in Afghanistan nor abandon the region to extremism.
The people of Afghanistan and Pakistan have a reliable longterm partner in the United States of America…
We also face the challenge of Iraq… The upcoming elections in Iraq will be an important milestone, but all US combat brigades will be out of Iraq by the end of August of this year. It’s been described as the largest movement of troops and equipment in modern military history.
It will be a huge undertaking. And this year there will be more US troops in Afghanistan than there will be in Iraq, by the end of the year. And all US troops will be out by the end of next year. But we’re not walking away from our partners - the Iraqi people. The US will remain a long-term partner and we will assist them in developing their security, along with their economic prosperity…
So too with Iran…
We simply cannot afford a nuclear arms race in the Middle East as a consequence of Iran developing nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver such weapons. And that’s why we have followed a two-track approach. First, we’ve demonstrated a clear willingness to engage with Tehran directly; second, by organising the international community around a series of proposals that would allow Iran to show its true intentions, this within calendar year 2009.
Low-enriched uranium would be removed from Iran, processed and returned for research purposes in a way that it could not be weaponised. The world has watched and waited as Tehran has whittled, whittled away this opportunity over the last year.
ATHENS NEWS 08/03/2010, page: 18
