19 August 2005
Cheney Says Human Cost of Terrorism Is Staggering
Attacks intended "to shake the will of civilized world," vice president says
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Across the globe, the cost in human lives and suffering at the hands of terrorists since September 11, 2001, has been staggering, says Vice President Cheney.
"Since 9/11, terrorists have continued to wage deadly attacks -- never as a conventional military force, but as a hidden element determined to slip in unnoticed, to shed innocent blood, and to shake the will of the civilized world," Cheney said August 18 in an address to the 73rd annual convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Missouri.
"The enemy that appeared on 9/11 is wounded, off-balance, and on the run, yet still very active, still seeking recruits, still trying to hit us."
Terrorists striking the United States on September 11, 2001, killed approximately 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon in Washington and in a quiet field in southern Pennsylvania, he said. But national boundaries have proven no barrier or protection from terrorism, he said, citing these recent incidents:
• In Bali, bombs in a commercial district killed more than 200.
• In Riyadh, simultaneous suicide car bombings of civilian targets left 34 dead and many injured.
• Since the mid-1990s in Jerusalem and in other cities in Israel, multiple suicide bombings have killed and maimed hundreds.
• In Casablanca, five separate attacks took the lives of over 40 civilians and injured more than 100.
• In Jakarta, a blast in front of a hotel killed 13 and injured at least 150.
• In Istanbul, terrorists set off four trucks filled with explosives, killing approximately 60 people and injuring some 700 more.
• In Madrid, 10 bombs on commuter trains killed nearly 200 and injured more than 1,800.
• In England in July, terrorists set off four explosions at rush hour, all of them targeted at commuters taking the train or the bus. The number killed in central London was 56, including the four bombers, together with another 700 injured.
• Shortly later in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, suicide bombers in a commercial district killed as many as 90 people, and injured more than 100 others.
• In Iraq, terrorists have killed innocent people in marketplaces, in restaurants, in private homes, at police recruiting stations, in a hospital, and outside a mosque.
The vice president noted that terrorists in Iraq "have beheaded bound men in front of cameras, and killed U.N. employees and international aid workers."
A suicide bomber killed 18 Iraqi children as American soldiers were giving them candy, he said.
"That's the nature of the enemy we face in the war on terror, and will face for the duration of this struggle. Killers who target innocent, unsuspecting men, women, and children on a peaceful street, or set off explosions during a morning rush hour, or fly passenger jets into buildings are not the kind of people you can bring to the bargaining table and sit down for a reasonable exchange of ideas," Cheney said.
"This is not a war we can win strictly on the defensive. Our only option against these enemies is to find them, to fight them, and to destroy them."
According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, there were 3,192 terrorist attacks in 2004 with 28,433 people killed, wounded or kidnapped.
Cheney said the struggle to reduce the threat from terrorism is a multinational campaign and is making progress across many fronts -- financial, legal, military, and others. In order to defeat terrorists, it is critical that nations deny them sanctuary and support, which the United States has been doing with a global coalition, he said.
The United States has also enforced the doctrine that those governments that support or harbor terrorists are complicit in the murder of the innocent, and equally guilty of terrorist crimes, Cheney said.
A transcript of the vice president’s remarks is available on the White House Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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