Q&A: John Negroponte
It seems as if we've had more success at the tactical level. But the recent National Intelligence Estimate suggests that, at the strategic level, we're still grappling with some of these forces. Are we getting any better sense of how we counter the war-of-ideas issue?
You've got to deal with the people who are going to set off the bombs and shoot guns, so we have to take measures to do that. But you also have to look at the root causes, and that is a longer-term proposition, and it doesn't only involve us. It involves the Muslim countries themselves. They've got to deal with issues of governance and reform in their societies and so forth, so that's a longer-term proposition.
Even there, more work is being done, and I think also within the Islamic community itself there's more debate about the Islamic violence and how to deal with it. But I think that in the end, the longer war on terrorism is going to depend, in large measure, on progress that these societies themselves make in dealing with those issues at home.
What role do we have? How far are we on in thinking about how we help these societies and how we help these governments deal with that?
Well, I think the role can only be supportive; it can't be a lead role. They have to do it themselves. But we can be supportive, whether it's through helping them identify political and economic reforms, through economic assistance, through security assistance where necessary. And also through a constant dialogue about what is the nature of the problem that we face and how best to deal with it. I think it's something that over time these societies will come to grips with it. I'm optimistic about it, but it's going to take some time.
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