Baker backs U.S. anti-terror efforts
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III said that worldevents in recent years have exceeded his worst nightmares.
As this year’s last speaker in the Tate Lecture Series,Baker, who served under former President Bush, addresseddifferences between the Cold War and the war on terror to a packedaudience in McFarlin Auditorium on Tuesday night.
Baker said that the Cold War was a simpler time compared tonow.
“Whatever Russia was for, we were against. Our businessesand governments were constantly striving to create better productsfaster than the other government. We were focused. There was us andthem,” Baker said. “With that gone it was only a matterof time before the threats of aggression by smaller groupsintensified against us and other areas.”
After the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, Bakerexpected more similar acts of aggression to be directed towardsUnited States, mostly because it was the only superpower. Bakersaid the acts would be committed out of jealousy, fear orinsecurity.
As a result, he said that the United States must be able to actunilaterally to protect itself.
“This must include an all-out war on terrorism. There isno point in asking why we’re [in Iraq.] We are. We do notneed to be thinking about how we can withdraw. We must stay thecause. If we can stay the cause against the Cold War for fourdecades, we can stay the cause on this war against terrorism. Wehave to for our own protection.”
He said that our counter-terrorist organizations were doing awonderful job and that there was no alternative to this war.
“It’s better to fight this war on the streets ofBaghdad than on the streets of Washington, D.C.,” Bakersaid.
When asked if Baker foresaw a possibility for peace betweenIsrael, the United States and the Middle East under currentpolitical leaders, Baker emphatically said no.
“I feel the Palestinians made a mistake in not acceptingPresident Clinton’s suggestion for peace,” Baker said.”Both the Israelis and Arabs are hard-liners. The Israeliswill not give up land for peace, and the Arabs won’trecognize Israel’s right to exist as a free state. To tradeland for peace is the only solution. When polled, the people ofIsrael and Palestine both said that they were tired of war and onlywant to live with their families in peace.”
Baker is a native of Houston. He was Under Secretary of Commercefor President Gerald Ford, White House Chief of Staff underPresident Ronald Reagan.
In addition to serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Baker earnedhis bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and graduatedfrom the University of Texas Law School.
He now lives in Houston where he is a senior partner in the lawfirm of Baker & Botts and serves as a senior counselor to theCarlyle Group, a merchant-banking firm in Washington, D.C.
