SECRETARY KERRY: Now, everyone knows that even as we build prosperity and improve governance
and fight corruption, we also have a fundamental obligation to keep our people safe.
And that’s the last challenge, the third challenge I want to just mention quickly.
In the 21st century, we’re learning every day that “next door” is everywhere, and
there can be no limit to our vigilance either in territory or in time.
Last year, in this forum, I suggested that the fight against violent extremism may well
be the defining challenge for our generation.
Nothing that has happened since has caused me to change my mind.
But I want to emphasize that this confrontation with the forces of terror is not separate
from reforming governance or from strengthening our communities in other ways, because doing
so, as I’ve tried to describe, is fundamental to eliminating the opportunity for extremism.
And as we take on this challenge, we have to avoid two dangers.
The first is that we treat this violence as some sort of “new normal,” as I mentioned
earlier – just a fact of modern life with which we’re going to have to coexist.
And the second is that we overreact, and define our adversary so broadly that we invite remedies
that backfire.
Our efforts have to be properly directed at those who plan, finance, and carry out terrorist
attacks – no less, but also no more.
Because we recognize an important and an inescapable truth: The conflict is not between one civilization
and another, which I sometimes read and you read.
It’s between civilization itself and barbarism.
Every day begins – remarkable examples are brought to us of civility fighting back.
Last month, an al-Shabaab gunman stopped a bus near the town of El Wak, Kenya, demanding
that the passengers separate themselves according to religion.
Instead, the Muslims shared their head scarves with the Christians to conceal their identity.
And one Muslim passenger said simply: “We stuck together tightly.
The militants told us they would shoot us but we still refused and protected our brothers
and sisters.
Finally, the terrorists gave up and left.”
In June, a group affiliated with Daesh attacked one of the oldest Shiite mosques in Kuwait;
27 worshippers lost their lives.
The attack’s purpose was to sow hatred between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Instead, Kuwait’s Sunni leaders urged their followers to pray at Shiite mosques.
Thirty-five thousand people attended the funeral for the victims.
The government vowed to rebuild the mosque and a Sunni business leader stood up and offered
to do the job for free.
The truth is that, for every act of terrorism, there are a multitude of efforts to promote
inter-religious respect and pluralism.
In Kenya, an organization called Sisters Without Borders is striving to prevent radicalization
of young people.
In the Central African Republic and Nigeria, Christian and Muslim leaders have joined ranks
to ease sectarian tensions.
In Norway, more than a thousand Muslims formed a human chain around a synagogue to condemn
extremist threats against Jews.
In London, Orthodox Jews formed street patrols to shield Muslim neighbors from hate crimes.
In country after country, citizens of all backgrounds have responded to deadly attacks
by showing that we will not be intimidated, we will not be split apart, and we will not
be provoked into abandoning our values.
Just last month, when the leader of Daesh asked Muslims everywhere to wise up and join
the cause, Muslims responded on Twitter: “Sorry, but I’m watching Star Wars.”
And “Sorry, I’m too busy being part of a civilized and functioning society.”
Some terrorists say that the greatest advantage they have – or as some people say of the
terrorists – that the greatest advantage they have is that they have the dedication
of fighters who are willing to blow themselves up.
But the truth – our advantage is we would never ask anyone to blow themselves up.
The terrorists drive people apart; we want people and nations to come together – and
they are.
Governments from Niger and Chad are helping Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.
The African Union is coordinating with Somalia to oppose al-Shabaab.
And the international coalition to counter Daesh now has 65 members and is making steady
gains.
And that coalition is something that the world has never seen before.
Its members are drawn from every corner of the globe, they’re engaged along multiple
lines of effort.
Some are training or equipping Iraqi armed forces.
Some are blocking Daesh’s money.
Some are countering the terrorists’ propaganda.
All are trying to stop the recruitment of foreign fighters.
And much of the leadership within the coalition has come from Arab states, because no one
knows better than they how high the stakes are and how to best win the battle of public
opinion.
I’ll just tell you quickly that since coming together 16 months ago, the coalition has
launched almost 10,000 airstrikes.
We’ve shown how effective the combination of coalition air support and ground action
by local partners can be.
We are eliminating terrorist leaders.
We’re hammering their oil wells, cash collection centers, refineries.
We are closing in on the full control of the Turkey-Syria border.
We have seized major portions of the strategic highway between Daesh’s two remaining strongholds
– Mosul and Raqqa.
Daesh has already had to slash the salaries they pay their fighters by 50 percent, and
that was one of the great recruitment tools.
And we have pushed the enemy already out of 30 to 40 percent of the territory that it
once controlled.
Now, yes, the struggle is far from over.
But we are headed in the right direction.
Look at Tikrit, Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
A year ago, the city was being pillaged by Daesh.
Everybody left.
Its thugs were everywhere, stealing anything not nailed down, killing anyone who didn’t
cooperate, posting images of their atrocities on YouTube.
The local university was their headquarters.
Today, that university has reopened with 16,000 students, 90 percent of Tikrit’s population
has returned, and Daesh is nowhere to be seen.
Then there’s Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.
Last May, it fell to the terrorists – a searing moment.
Iraq’s Prime Minister immediately vowed to put together a plan to retake it.
And now, after months of training, clearing away explosives, fending off snipers, and
sustaining more than a thousand of Iraq’s forces as casualties, they have reclaimed
the heart of the city.
And Iraqi Security Forces, with our support, are on the march to retake all of Anbar province.
Each day, we’re learning more about what works, and each day, we are intensifying the
pressure on Daesh.
Now, we’ve known from the moment that we started that this international coalition’s
success was going to take years.
I said that here a year ago; I said it when we formed the coalition.
So we have been consistent, but now we are consistently achieving our goals and making
progress.
In the end, mark my words, Daesh will be defeated – and the progress that we have made toward
that end is undeniable.
Our operational tempo is accelerating, the support of our allies is broadening, our partners
on the ground are becoming stronger, and the terrorists never know what might hit them
or from where.
Now, I close by saying to you that nothing, in the end, would do more to terminate the
threat of Daesh than, obviously, to negotiate an end to the war in Syria, and that is precisely
what we are trying to do.
Achieving it will not be easy.
It isn’t already, though we’ve taken important first steps.
We’ve assembled a 20-member support group that includes every major country with a direct
stake in Syria – including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran, and Russia.
We’ve all been together at the same table.
Second, we’ve agreed on a list of principles endorsed by the UN Security Council, pointing
the way toward the kind of stable, sovereign, inclusive, and non-sectarian Syria that we
all seek.
And third, we’ve set in motion a plan for direct negotiations between the government
and the opposition, soon hopefully to begin in Geneva, to try – to try to find the political
settlement that everybody says is the only way, ultimately, to end the war.
We’re trying to find a political transition and internationally supervised elections.
And we have agreed on a timetable for taking these steps so the process is not allowed
to drag on endlessly.
That’s the outline and now it has to be implemented.
Now, many obstacles remain, but there are also compelling reasons why this initiative
is so important.
Every country in the region opposes Daesh, and even governments that disagree with each
other on other issues acknowledge that the war has to end and a diplomatic solution has
to be found.
No one has more incentive to do that than the Syrians themselves to try to write a new
chapter in their history.
As usual, as we gather here in Davos in 2016, it’s obvious from my comments and your own
discussions and everything we know about the world today, we face gigantic challenges.
But please, we should remember that compared to any earlier generation, we have tremendous
advantages.
A child today is more likely than ever before in history to be born healthy, more likely
to be adequately fed, more likely to get the necessary vaccinations, more likely to attend
school, and more likely to actually live a long life.
Individuals and companies around the world thrive on new technologies that have made
possible incredible breakthroughs in communications, education, health care, and economic growth.
And Klaus has designated the work of these days in Davos to figure out how to harness
the fourth iteration of the technology revolution.
According to World Bank projections, the extreme poverty rate has fallen below 10 percent for
the first time in history.
Compared to 1987, when the World Economic Forum first met, the number of democracies
has doubled and the number of nuclear weapons has fallen by two-thirds.
All of this isn’t because any one country did something or because what governments
alone have done.
It’s what happens when people, writ broadly, in faith-based groups, NGOs, governments,
private sector, business all come together valuing skills and valuing dignity, respect
the rights of each other, and when they believe in the possibilities of progress no matter
how many setbacks are confronted along the way.
That is really not a very complicated formula, folks, but it does give me a powerful sense
of confidence about what we can achieve.
By encouraging innovation, we can count on the individual ingenuity of people in our
universities and laboratories, and yes, in basements and garages, to generate new ideas
that will enable us to push back the boundaries of what is possible in energy, education,
food security, health.
And through a process of open discussion like we engage in here, we will continue to identify
ways to improve governance, to foster shared prosperity, to create societies whose leaders
are accountable and whose citizens have the privilege of thriving under rule of law.
And by insisting on rights and dignity of every human being, we will ensure the defeat
of Daesh and similar groups who have nothing to offer anybody except destruction and death.
That is how we choose to have a world defined – not by shutting off the world, not by
segregating it by tribe, sect, religion, not by conflict, but by opportunity.
And believe me, opportunity is something that the Daeshes and the Boko Harams and the Shabaabs
can never offer.