Benghazi Attackers Struck Against U.N. Ideals, Obama Says

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By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2012 – The assaulton the U.S. Consulate earlier this month in Benghazi, Libya, was an attack notonly on America, but also on the ideals of the United Nations, President BarackObama said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly today.
The attack that killed four Americans,including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, was an assault on“the notion that people can resolve their differences peacefully, thatdiplomacy can take the place of war, and that in an interdependent world, allof us have a stake in working towards greater opportunity and security for ourcitizens,” the president said.
Nations must be serious about theassault on those ideals and must go to the root causes that extremists use toincite populations, Obama said. “If we are serious about those ideals,” he toldthe General Assembly, “we must speak honestly about the deeper causes of thiscrisis, because we face a choice between the forces that would drive us apart,and the hopes we hold in common.”
Leaders, the president said, must decidethat violence and intolerance have no place in the United Nations.
America has supported the forces ofchange sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, Obama said. “We were inspiredby the Tunisian protests that toppled a dictator, because we recognized our ownbeliefs in the aspirations of men and women who took to the streets,” he said.“We insisted on change in Egypt, because our support for democracy put us onthe side of the people.”
The United States supported leadershiptransition in Yemen and intervened in Libya alongside a broad coalition“because we had the ability to stop the slaughter of innocents, and because webelieved that the aspirations of the people were more powerful than a tyrant,”he said.
Obama also restated the U.S. positionthat the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad must end.
“We have taken these positions becausewe believe that freedom and self-determination are not unique to one culture,”he said. Freedom is a universal value, the president added.
The events of the past two weeks -- inwhich extremists have used an Internet video that denigrates the ProphetMuhammad to spur anti-American demonstrations -- speak to the need for nationsto address the tensions between the West and an Arab World moving to democracy,Obama said. The United States will not dictate the outcome of democratictransitions, the president said, nor does America expect every nation to agreewith U.S. positions.
“However, I do believe that it is theobligation of all leaders, in all countries, to speak out forcefully againstviolence and extremism,” he said. “It is time to marginalize those who -- evenwhen not resorting to violence -- use hatred of America, or the West, orIsrael, as a central principle of politics. For that only gives cover, andsometimes makes excuses, for those who resort to violence.”
Obama reiterated that the United Stateswill not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. “America wants to resolve thisissue through diplomacy, and we believe that there is still time and space todo so,” he said. “But that time is not unlimited.”
A nuclear-armed Iran is not a challengethat can be contained, Obama said. “It would threaten the elimination ofIsrael, the security of [Persian] Gulf nations, and the stability of the globaleconomy,” he added.
Iranian possession of nuclear weaponswould spur an arms race in the region and unravel the Nuclear Non-proliferationTreaty, Obama said.
“That is why a coalition of countries isholding the Iranian government accountable,” he added. “And that is why theUnited States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclearweapon.”