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The Cable

The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Clinton: We cannot afford to live in fear

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by saying that the United States still has a lot to do to fight global extremism, but the country must not to repeat the mistakes of President George W. Bush‘s administration and sacrifice American values in the process. "The United States has ...

By Josh Rogin

September 9, 2011, 2:42 PM

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by saying that the United States still has a lot to do to fight global extremism, but the country must not to repeat the mistakes of President George W. Bush's administration and sacrifice American values in the process.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by saying that the United States still has a lot to do to fight global extremism, but the country must not to repeat the mistakes of President George W. Bush‘s administration and sacrifice American values in the process.

"The United States has thrived as an open society, a principled nation, and a global leader. We cannot afford to live in fear, sacrifice our values, or pull back from the world," Clinton said in a Friday morning speech at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Over the last decade our government also sometimes went off course and failed to live up to our core values and principles," she said. "We have begun to set this right, and to make progress on the other gaps as well. And as we move forward, we are determined not to let the specter of terrorism darken the national character that has always been America’s greatest asset."

Clinton pledged that the Obama administration would respect the rule of law when going after terror suspects, including international law principles guiding the use of force in self-defense, respect for the sovereignty of other states, and the laws of armed conflict.

"When we capture al Qaeda members, we detain them humanely and consistent with international standards. And when we do strike, we seek to protect innocent civilians from harm," she said. She also argued that some terrorists must be tried in civilian courts, while the use of "reformed" military commissions is also appropriate in some cases.

The United States must use a "smart power" approach to counterterrorism that combines military action with financial, diplomatic, development, and public relations efforts, she said. She linked terrorism to the problems of poverty and weak states around the world.

Clinton also noted that as she was speaking in New York City, the federal government was working diligently on a credible but unconfirmed threat of a possible car bomb attack in New York and/or Washington

"As you know, we are meeting here in New York amid reports that al Qaeda is again seeking to harm Americans. This should surprise no one. But it is a reminder of the continuing stakes in our struggle against violent extremism," she said. "We are taking this threat seriously, and federal, state and local authorities are taking all necessary steps to address it."

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin