(Washington Post) - Calling the development of freedom in the Middle East the "security challenge and the moral mission of our time," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. and its allies must make a "generational commitment" to Middle Easterners who live under oppressive and often corrupt governments. In a speech to the National Association of Black Journalists in Dallas, Rice disputed "condescending voices" who say Arab cultures are not ready for freedom. Invoking her girlhood in racially segregated Birmingham, she said: "We've heard that argument before. And we, more than any, as a people, should be ready to reject it....The view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East."
2003-08-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive