MUNICH, Germany – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pushed Saturday for unity in the fight against terrorism, telling a meeting of the world’s top security officials that “a war has been declared on all of our nations and on our people.”
Rumsfeld pushed U.S. allies to increase military spending to defeat the threat of a “global extremist empire” he said terrorists hope to create.
“The Cold War wasn’t won through fate or good luck; freedom prevailed because our free nations showed resolve when retreat would have been easier, showed courage when concession seemed simpler and more attractive,” Rumsfeld said.
Speaking before the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program, Rumsfeld accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism. But he said America stood “with the Iranian people, the women, the young people, who want a peaceful, democratic future.”
Opening the second day of the 42nd annual Munich security conference, a gathering that defense experts and policy-makers traditionally use for frank exchanges, Rumsfeld said violent extremism was a danger faced by Europe as much as the United States. He said Islamic militants were on the move and had to be checked.
“They seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent,” he said. “They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist empire.
“Today our countries have another choice to make – we could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep; we could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated,” he said. “But … what if they are wrong?”
Rumsfeld pointed out that the U.S. spends 3.7 percent of its gross domestic product on national defense, while 19 of the 25 other NATO nations spend less than 2 percent of their GDP on defense.
Germany, which spends 1.4 percent of its GDP on defense, and others have been under pressure to step up their funding.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country was willing to be more active on the international stage, but warned that budget restraints would continue to limit defense spending.
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