Bush Urges Europe to Unite against Terror

31/05/2003| IslamWeb

U.S. president Bush sought to heal bitter wounds lingering from the Iraq war Saturday by calling on NATO partners new and old to unite against terrorism. "This is no time to stir up divisions in a great alliance," he said in the town square here, on the first day of a Europe trip that will include his first meetings with the leaders of France and Germany - longtime allies who split with Bush on the Iraq war. "Today our alliance faces a new enemy: a lethal combination of terror groups, outlaw states seeking weapons of mass destruction and an ideology of power and domination that targets the innocent and justifies any crime," Bush said. "This is a time for all of us to unite in the defense of liberty, and to step up to the shared duties of free nations." Bush announced a new effort, the Proliferation Security Initiative, in which the United States, Poland and other, unspecified countries will search planes and ships carrying "suspect cargo." The initiative aims to seize illicit weapons and missile technologies and other agents of terrorism, Bush said. He provided few details, but said: "Over time, we will expand this partnership as broadly as possible to keep the world's most destructive weapons away from our shores and out of the hands of our common enemies." Bush sought to defend Poland against critics elsewhere in Europe of its pro-U.S. stance on the war in Iraq. "You have not come all this way, through occupations and tyranny and brave uprisings, only to be told that you must now choose between Europe and America," Bush said to applause. "Poland is a good citizen of Europe and Poland is a close friend of America. And there is no conflict between the two." Bush compared the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York to the "treachery of another September," in 1939 when the Soviet Union entered World War II in an alliance with Nazi Germany by seizing part of Poland. "The lesson of all those events is the same: aggression and evil intent must not be ignored and appeased. They must be opposed early and decisively," Bush said. Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, basked in the glow of Bush's support and in his role as trans-Atlantic peacemaker. "Disputes from the past are gone and reconciliation has replaced them," he said. He praised Bush for agreeing to go to the Middle East to try to push his peace plan. "We definitely wish you a lot of luck in your mission," he said. After stops in Poland, Russia and France, Bush will try to advance a peace plan known as the "road map," stopping in Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. He intends to preside over a three-way summit between the leaders of Israel and Palestine the following day. "I will do all that I can to help the parties reach agreement, and then see that that agreement is enforced," he said to applause. Bush called anew for a "reformed and peaceful and independent" Palestinian state, existing side-by-side in "peace and security" with Israel. "I will remind them that the work ahead will require difficult decisions," he said. "I will remind them that for peace to prevail, all leaders must fight terror and shake off old arguments and old ways. No leader of conscience can accept more months and years of humiliation and killing and mourning." **PHOTO CAPTION*** Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, left, welcomes U.S. President George W. Bush in Krakow, Saturday, May 31, 2003. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)