Former U.S. President George Bush said the Sept. 11 attacks are examples of the new threats this nation must fight over the coming years.
Speaking to state government leaders, university administrators and Fisher College of Business faculty and students yesterday at Mershon Auditorium, Bush said two entities – instability and unpredictability – are the natural foes of good government and freedom.
“The world still remains a dangerous place,” Bush said. “The Soviet bear is gone. The new dangers, which include terrorism, narco-traffickers and rouge states, take its place.
“All represent threats to the peaceful world,” he said.
The Fisher Council on Global Trade and Technology invited Bush to speak about the benefits of global free trade. According to the former president, global free trade must be aggressively pursued in order to achieve free market economies, new jobs and the uplifting of people everywhere to better lives.
To convey the “two-way” benefits of open trade, Bush cited the example of U.S. dealings with Canada and Mexico.
In 1988, the year before the two countries opened their boarders economically, U.S. trade exports totaled $86 billion, Bush said. After an open trade agreement, exports jumped to $250 billion. He added that Canada’s exports to this nation jumped from $100 billion to $360 billion over the same time period.
Bush noted a similar economic boom occurred with Mexico in 1994, after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement yielded thousands of new American jobs, Bush said.
“I’m 77 years old, and I want to live long enough to see a totally free (western) hemisphere, and I want to see a hemisphere involved in free and fair trade,” Bush said. “Both these objectives are possible within the next 10 years.”
While mainly concentrating on economic issues, Bush did take the opportunity to address the Sept. 11 attacks specifically.
“We have to stand up to these murderers and stand up for our freedoms,” Bush said. “Despite the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of our foes, the common values that unite our world will prevail.”
Recognizing the war against terrorism will continue for a long time, Bush urged all Americans to move on with their lives and not be scared into submission by the terrorists’ atrocities.
“I am optimistic about our future. We have a new world order of peace and prosperity, and there are more democracies today than at anytime during the Cold War,” he said. “History is often a process of two steps forward and one step back. Christian, Jewish and Muslim law, all which have precepts that value human life, will prevail.”
At the end of the presentation, Ohio State President William “Brit” Kirwan presented Bush with an OSU football jersey, with the number 41.
The Fisher Council on Global Trade was established in 1998 to bring world-class experts to campus to discuss issues of global trade and technology. Previous speakers include former President Gerald Ford and U.S. International Trade Representative Carla Hills.
The event was closed to the general public, and security around the former president was extremely tight. A few dozen individuals picketed outside the auditorium, protesting U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
