[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4214-4216]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE'S CONGRESS OF LIBYA BY SENATOR BIDEN

  Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in 
the Record an important speech given by my colleague and friend, the 
distinguished senior Senator from Delaware, Mr. Biden, to the Libyan 
People's Congress on March 3, 2004.

       Salam ale Qum.
       Thank you for inviting me to speak to you. I traveled a 
     great distance to get here, but in so many ways, in recent 
     years, the distance between Libya and America has seemed even 
     greater, almost insurmountable. Now, there is real hope that 
     we will bridge the great divide that has kept us apart. But 
     there is still much work to be done. It is in that spirit of 
     hope that I stand before you . . . and that I send my 
     greetings to the Libyan people who are watching these 
     proceedings in their homes. At the outset, let me tell you 
     who I am and why I am here. I am a United States Senator. I 
     represent a small portion of my country--the state of 
     Delaware, which is located between Washington and New York.
       As you know, in America there are no Kings or Princes, no 
     Lords or Dukes, no Emirs or Sultans, Like you, we fought a 
     war against colonialism for our freedom. The central belief 
     in our system is that each individual should have an equal 
     opportunity to succeed.
       At home, I am surrounded by very strong women. A mother who 
     instilled in her children the values of faith and community. 
     A sister who was better at her studies than I was, and upon 
     whose guidance our large family depends. A wife who is a 
     respected professor in our community, not just smart, but 
     also wise. And a daughter who knows she can be anything she 
     wants to be.
       Like most of the nearly 300 million Americans whose 
     families arrived on our shores from every corner of the 
     globe, I was not born to wealth or stature. I was not 
     promised anything other than the opportunity granted to every 
     American--the opportunity to go as far as I could dream.
       I am sure that Libyan parents share the same hope for their 
     children. I am sure it is a universal hope--but not one that 
     can be realized in many countries. That's one of the things 
     that makes my country special.
       I have served in the United States Senate for 31 years, 
     elected democratically six times by the men and women of 
     Delaware. Men and women. Young and old. Black and white, 
     Hispanic and Asian. Christians, Jews, Hindus and yes, Arab-
     Americans and Muslims. You may not know that there are almost 
     as many Muslims in the United States as there are citizens of 
     Libya. And there are more Arab-Americans than all the people 
     who live in Tripoli. Their votes count the same as everyone 
     else.
       I belong to the Democratic party. President Bush leads the 
     other major political party--the Republican party. But I am 
     here not as a representative of my party . . . not as a 
     representative of Christian-Americans . . . not as a 
     representative of white Americans. I am here as a 
     representative of my country who believes, along with many 
     other Americans, that this is a moment of great possibility 
     for Libya and for the relationship between our countries. But 
     many of us remain skeptical.
       For too long, our relationship has been marked by 
     hostility. In fact, I have a personal connection to the 
     terrible act that set back our relations for years.
       I am a graduate of Syracuse University Law School. There is 
     a wall at my school, erected to the memory of 270 people--
     including 35 young students who never returned home from 
     their studies abroad. They lost their lives when Pan Am 103 
     was bombed out of the sky. Thirty-five is a number, a 
     statistic. But each of those young people had a name. Each 
     had a mother and a father, a sister and brother, and friends 
     who loved them--and who still suffer their loss every single 
     day. The victims were young men and women like Ken Bissett. 
     He was an artist and a writer. Like Eric and Jason Coker, 
     twin brothers. Eric was studying economics. Jason wanted to 
     be a journalist. He might have been here today, reporting on 
     their significant event. And like a kind hearted young women 
     named Keesha Weedon who wanted to help troubled children. 
     Each of these young people had a past--and each had a future 
     cut short by violence. Imagine if one of them had been your 
     son or your daughter. Think about that for just a moment. 
     Your government's admission of responsibility for the bombing 
     of Pan Am 103 was not only necessary--it was the right thing 
     to do. And it was consistent with your traditions. In the 
     words of the Koran: ``As for him who shall repent and believe 
     and do right, he happily may be one of the successful.'' It 
     appears now that your government wants to change in order to 
     become ``one of the successful.''
       Americans will never forget the past. But we cannot allow 
     it to stop us from building a more peaceful world that can 
     prevent such tragedies in the future. That must be the legacy 
     of those who lost their lives, and for those who carry their 
     memory. And so while American remain wary, we also stand 
     ready to walk with you if you are willing to take the 
     difficult steps necessary to rejoin the community of nations. 
     By accepting responsibility for the past . . . agreeing to 
     abandon its weapons of mass destruction program . . . and 
     joining the war on terrorism . . . your government is 
     beginning to end Libya's political and economic isolation. 
     But what I want to say to you today is this: do not stop 
     there. Aim higher. Go further.
       For centuries, the people of Libya were denied the 
     opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential. First, you 
     were held back by outside colonizers. Then, you were led 
     astray by misguided ideologies. The result is a great gulf 
     between your rightful expectations and the reality of your 
     lives.
       You are right to expect good schools for your children and 
     first rate doctors for your parents. You are right to expect 
     to own your home and to build your own business. You are 
     right to expect newspapers with competing ideas and an 
     internet connection in every home. You are right to expect 
     the freedom to speak your mind without fear of being thrown 
     in jail. So the question is: How do you make sure that 
     history does not repeat itself and that you are not denied 
     the opportunity to which you are entitled?
       Your economic potential is extraordinary because of the 
     natural resources buried in the ground. But your national 
     potential is limitless, because of the human resources that 
     are spread all across this land.
       You have tremendous oil power. But it will only be 
     meaningful if you use it to unleash the brain power of the 
     Libyan people--especially the awesome potential of your 
     youth. In fact, oil can be more of a burden than a benefit if 
     it used as an excuse not to develop all aspects of your 
     society . . . and if its proceeds are not widely shared and 
     wisely invested in education, training and a strong 
     foundation for the future.
       Let me offer you a concrete example. It concerns patents--
     the legal protection the world gives to new ideas and 
     inventions. They're a good measure of the quality of a 
     country's educational system, its entrepreneurship, its 
     innovation and its rule of law. Between 1980 and 1999, the 
     nine leading Arab economies--each built on oil wealth--
     registered a mere 370 patents in my country. During that same 
     period, South Korea alone registered 16,328 patents. Why? In 
     the 21st century, human resources are the true wealth of any 
     nation. You have a historic opportunity to free those human 
     resources to their full potential. I urge you to seize it.
       It may strike you as presumptuous that an American 
     politician is offering advice that you did not seek. After 
     all, my country has its own problems. Let me be clear: I have 
     not come here to impose American views on you or to suggest 
     we have all the answers. But I know that more than ever 
     before, your fate and our future are joined. There was a time 
     when the United States would have been satisfied with the 
     status quo in the Middle East, North Africa and here in 
     Libya. But the events of September 11, 2001 marked a turning 
     point in how my country views the world, and specifically how 
     it sees this region.
       Americans now understand that the promise of our time is 
     matched by peril. Ideas and innovations can travel the planet 
     at the stroke of a computer key, spreading progress far and 
     wide. But the same technology and openness that power these 
     forces of construction also enable forces of destruction. As 
     a result, problems in any one part of our planet can plague 
     the entire world, including the United States. There is no 
     mountain high enough or ocean wide enough to protect us. The 
     question for America is what, if anything, can we do about 
     this new reality? Make no mistake: the United States will 
     meet and defeat any threat to the safety of our people and 
     the security of our country. We have the will and we have the 
     way to prevail.
       But our physical prowess alone cannot solve the problem. We 
     are engaged in much more than a contest of force. We are 
     engaged in a war of ideas. I am convinced that war will be 
     won by those who offer hope, not hatred . . . progress, not 
     paralysis . . . a vision for the future, not an obsession 
     with the past.
       Those who attacked us on September 11 were beyond the reach 
     of reason. Their blind hatred was not the bitter fruit of 
     poverty--they were relatively prosperous people. It was not 
     the product of Islam--they perverted a great faith. It was 
     not the result of American's support for Israel, as much as 
     you may

[[Page 4215]]

     disagree with it. Osama Bin Laden almost never mentioned the 
     Palestinian cause before attacks. His focus was his own 
     country, Saudi Arabia.
       No, America's aggressors were foot soldiers in a new war 
     pitting believers in freedom, openness, and tolerance against 
     the forces of radical fundamentalism and regression. It is 
     not a clash between civilizations, but within civilizations--
     especially within the Arab and Muslim worlds.
       Today, violent radicals have turned their terror on us. But 
     make no mistake: they regard the large majority of moderate 
     Muslims as their enemies as well. Hundreds of Muslims were 
     among the more than 3000 dead in the World Trade Center and 
     the victims of attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Morocco. 
     And if the radicals succeed, you will be their victims in 
     another way as well, condemned to a future of hopelessness 
     and despair.
       I believe that the cause of hope and the tide of history is 
     on the side of the moderates and modernizers--in this region, 
     in my region and around the world. Our challenge is to reject 
     their cynicism and hatred and to build an alliance of 
     tolerance and progress.
       We each have a job to do. Our job--America's job--is first 
     and foremost to listen to you--to listen to your ideas, as 
     well as your fears and concerns. And to do a much better job 
     explaining our ideas and intentions.
       But even if we do that well, human nature is the same world 
     wide. It is rare to feel good about your neighbor's new car 
     when you've just lost your job. America's military might, 
     economic power and cultural reach make us present in people's 
     lives on every continent, in every country. Sometimes we do 
     not recognize the conflicting emotions this can produce: 
     respect and admiration, but also envy, resentment and fear.
       There will always be those who do not like specific 
     policies we advocate or the way we pursue them. That is your 
     right. The burden is on us to make our case . . . and to have 
     faith in our power to persuade, not just coerce. It may 
     surprise you that most Americans don't like the fact we're 
     the world's sole superpower. They understand it thrusts upon 
     them a responsibility they did not seek and would rather not 
     bear. For example, the people I represent in Delaware 
     understood but did not like the fact I voted to send their 
     sons and daughters to Kosovo. They went to Kosovo to prevent 
     the genocidal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Muslim 
     men, women and children by Milosevic.
       For better or worse, one result of our standing is that 
     people around the world think the U.S. is both the cause of, 
     and answer to, their concerns.
       I am proud that America is, more often than not, the 
     solution rather than the problem. I am also proud of our 
     generosity. Like your tradition of Zakat, we feel a moral 
     obligation to share our good fortune. Every year, we send 
     tens of billions of dollars far from our shores to help the 
     impoverished . . . support economic development . . . combat 
     AIDS. We should do more. We already do a lot. But it is also 
     true that in the Middle East and North Africa, repressive 
     political systems and closed economies generate deep anger, 
     resentment, and extremism. I know that the United States has 
     seemed, at best, indifferent to the plight of the oppressed 
     and, at worst, complicit with corrupt and autocratic 
     regimes--despite our generosity.
       In the past, we've justified that support in different 
     ways: the Cold War struggle against communism . . . the 
     preference for stability over chaos . . . the need to ensure 
     a steady supply of oil. the tragedy of 9-11 has taught 
     America the hard way that we cannot afford such policies. As 
     President Bush said recently: ``stability cannot be purchased 
     at the expense of liberty.''
       Americans of all political persuasions agree that our 
     security requires us to more actively support your 
     aspirations to choose your own leaders . . . to express your 
     own opinions . . . to associate freely with others . . . to 
     worship in peace . . . to be treated with dignity. In a word, 
     our security requires us to more actively support your desire 
     for liberal democracy. That is the right thing to do. And it 
     is the surest path to realizing your potential and your 
     dreams. Democracy is first and foremost about preventing the 
     concentration of power into the hands of the few . . . or the 
     one. Elections are necessary--but not enough. Democracy is 
     about creating individual rights and building independent 
     institutions: courts of law, political parties, a free press, 
     transparent government, property ownership, a private sector, 
     non-governmental organizations. It is about schools that 
     teach tolerance to your children, and teach them to think for 
     themselves. It is about making women genuine partners in 
     building a modern society.
       Nothing about democracy is incompatible with Islam. For 
     example, since the days of the Prophet, the shura--a council 
     where community leaders gather to make decisions through 
     discussion--has been a Muslim concept.
       I know many resist change because of the uncertainty it 
     brings. I understand the tension people feel between holding 
     on to traditions that are comfortable and embracing 
     modernity. In my own country, people contend with that 
     tension every day. For example, free trade means that 
     Americans have more choice and pay less for the many things 
     in our stores. But it also means American jobs are lost to 
     countries where people are willing to work for lower pay. 
     That has made millions of Americans--despite our prosperity--
     angry and afraid.
       So each of us, in different ways, has to contend with 
     powerful forces of change and the uncertainty they bring. 
     Every nation must find its own way. Let me share with you, in 
     all humility, the path my country has chosen and some lessons 
     we have learned.
       Many see the economic, cultural and military power of the 
     United States. What they may not understand is that those 
     strengths flow from our democratic system, not the other way 
     around. They flow from the freedom we afford every American 
     to think, to question and to create. There are other paths to 
     prosperity. South Korea once enjoyed extraordinary growth 
     without democracy. Now, so does China. But I am convinced 
     that in the long run, the freedoms we enjoy are a tremendous 
     advantage in competing with other countries in the 
     information age.
       Our strength also flows from the great diversity of our 
     people. More than two centuries ago, our founders recognized 
     that America's enduring mission would be ``to form a more 
     perfect union''. In other words, they understood the 
     challenge of forging a single nation from many different 
     parts. But they were confident that in working to overcome 
     our differences, Americans would constantly move forward.
       They were right. My country was born in the midst of 
     slavery; we still struggle to overcome the legacy of racism. 
     But we can also say that African Americans have made great 
     strides and are making great contributions to our society.
       The rights we enjoy and the institutions we built give 
     every American the power to shine a light on the mistakes we 
     make, and to demand that they be corrected. And the rules we 
     live by protect us from the excess of absolute power . . . 
     and have helped us build a country where each individual has 
     the opportunity, but not the guarantee, to achieve his or her 
     potential.
       Please do not misunderstand me. I mean no disrespect. But 
     the nations of the Arab world could be doing so much more to 
     harness the enormous potential of their people.
       Consider this: the combined gross domestic product of all 
     Arab countries in 1999 was less than that of a single 
     European country--Spain. Think about that for a moment. And 
     then think back a thousand years. Spain was part of a great 
     Arab empire which encompassed most of the Mediterranean and 
     the Middle East. Why did you thrive then? It was not your 
     armies alone. It was your ideas, your civilization, your 
     culture, your openness. Why has this one small territory--
     then called Al Andalus, now called Spain--outpaced the rest 
     of the Arab world combined today?
       Don't take the answer from me. Listen to the leading Arab 
     scholars who recently completed a remarkable study of Arab 
     Human Development, published by the United Nations. It speaks 
     to the need across the Arab world to make progress in three 
     critical areas: Empowering women, spreading knowledge, and 
     expanding freedom. This is an incredibly difficult 
     challenge--but also an extraordinary opportunity. 70% of your 
     population is below the age of 30. Unlocking their minds and 
     unleashing their talents can be a deep source of strength. 
     Bringing women into the work place will boost your economies 
     . . . just as women leaders past and present in Pakistan . . 
     . in Bangladesh . . . in Turkey . . . and in Indonesia 
     energized the Muslim world's politics. Giving your people 
     access to the internet will connect them to a vast supply of 
     knowledge and power your progress.
       The United States wants to help you seize these 
     opportunities in a spirit of cooperation. We are ready to 
     share our experiences . . . to make investments in your 
     economies . . . to welcome you into the international 
     community. We are prepared to build these partnerships 
     because it is in our interest.
       It is up to you to take the necessary, important, 
     unavoidable risks. The choice is yours. You can merely 
     survive, with an economy that generates just enough wealth to 
     get by and a society that provides few freedoms and 
     opportunities.
       Or you can thrive. I am convinced you can thrive. My 
     conviction follows from your history. At a time when 
     Europeans were barely emerging from the Dark Ages, the light 
     of civilization was shinning brightly in the Arab world. 
     Scholars outpaced their European counterparts in math, 
     science and other disciplines of modernity. Philosophers and 
     poets, architects and artists enlightened the world from 
     Cairo to Baghdad to Damascus to Granada.
       I believe with all my heart that you can build a future as 
     glorious as your past. And I am convinced that my country has 
     a profound stake in your success.
       Let me leave you with the words of a great Arab-American 
     poet, Gibran Khalil Gibran, that speak powerfully to this 
     time and this challenge: ``O land veiled to our sight from 
     ages past
       Which way to you? Which path? How long? How wide? What 
     wasteland hems you in? What mountain range Enfolds your 
     realm?

[[Page 4216]]

     Which one of us the guide? Are you our hope? Or are you a 
     mirage? In hearts where none but fruitless quests reside . . 
     .
       ``O source of knowledge where our forbears dwelt, Where 
     truth they worshiped, beauty was their creed; Uncharted 
     source, unknown, unreachable Whether by crested wave or 
     racing steed, Neither in East nor West can you be found, In 
     southern reaches nor in northern field, Not in the skies we 
     find you, nor the seas, Nor pathless deserts which beguile 
     our art; Deep in the soul you burst, like light, like fire, 
     You are within my chest, my pounding heart.''
       Thank you for listening.

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