Clinton's speech in London

December 17, 2001

Thanks you, Duncan Smeed, for this link:

Bill Clinton: The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century

I'm only part way through the lecture, but this quote struck me, and I wanted to share it here:

"I am absolutely confident that we have the knowledge and the means to make the twenty first century the most peaceful, prosperous, interesting time in all human history. The question is whether we have the wisdom and the will."

Another one, even more powerful:

"We're spending - America - about a billion dollars a month in Afghanistan, that's as cheap as a war gets. We will never fight a conflict for less than a billion a month. For twelve billion dollars a year, we can pay America's share of all those initiatives I just mentioned and have money left over. So I urge you to think about that."

And there are isolationists who would cut off the world from the dream they live and let them die of AIDS, war or terrorism borne of hatred grown by ignorance. I can't understand that.