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"We Are in a Fight for our Principles," 9/11 Chair Tells St. John's Audience
Thomas Kean, Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, told an audience of about 300 people at St. John's College Saturday that even though the United States will always face the threat of attack from extremists, America must find a balance between national security and civil liberties.
"We think our liberties and our system of government are special," said Kean. "They are. We take great pride in our democratic institutions and freedoms. But there is nothing magical about their continuation. They continue because we struggle every day to defend them."
Kean, the former two-term governor of New Jersey, was serving as the president of Drew University when President George W. Bush selected him to chair the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. He came to St. John's in Annapolis as part of the college's Great Issues Series, which pairs a lecture on contemporary issues with community seminars on related readings from great works of Western civilization.
"Our soldiers are on the front lines of freedom, and so is everyone in this room," Kean said. "It is your obligation - our obligation - to defend our freedoms at home, even as we take all appropriate steps to defend our country against terrorist attack."
Kean recapped some of the commission's recommendations and detailed those that are being acted upon and those that still have not been implemented. For example, the commission noted in its final report that the Department of Homeland Security reported to 88 congressional committees and subcommittees, a waste of time and resources. The number of committees was trimmed, he said-but only to 86. Acting on a commission recommendation, Congress also created the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board within the Executive Branch, but the board was slow to get started and its record was a disappointment. "The old Board has lapsed, and the White House so far has taken no visible steps to reconstitute a new Board under the new law. The President needs to move forward and implement the new law, so that the Board can move forward with its important work," he said.
The U.S. has also been ineffective in improving its relations with the Muslim world, he said. America needs a "vigorous diplomatic effort, with the visible, active support of the president" to address the hatred that feeds extremism.
Kean concluded his speech by referring to the reading for the seminars that were to follow: "The Melian Dialogue" from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. He pointed out that the Athenians abandoned justice and moderation in their quest for security, and it left them poised for their own destruction. "In times of grave danger, policies of moderation and justice, both at home and abroad, must not be abandoned," he said. "In times of grave danger, institutions and values will be put under great stress - but they must be cherished, not marginalized because of tactical convenience.
"President Bush put it well in his address to a joint session of Congress, just days after the September 11th attacks: "I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them."
"So much has happened in the intervening years. We are deeply involved in three wars: the war on terror, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet what was true on a cloudless September morning six years ago is still true today: We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them."