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In Berlin, Obama asks Europe, America to defeat terror

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 25, 2008

BERLIN - Before the largest crowd of his campaign - 4,000 miles from the United States - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama yesterday summoned Europeans and Americans together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it" as surely as they conquered communism a generation ago.

Obama said he was speaking as an American citizen, yet the evening was awash in politics as the first-term U.S. senator sought to burnish his international credentials for the fall campaign at home. His remarks before a crowd estimated at more than 200,000 inevitably invited comparison to historic speeches in the same city by presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Obama borrowed rhetoric from his own appeals to campaign audiences this year in the likes of Berlin, N.H., as he spoke in one of the great cities of Europe. "People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time," he declared.

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city. "The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand."

Obama's speech was the centerpiece of a fast-paced tour through Europe designed to reassure skeptical voters at home about his ability to take a frayed cross-Atlantic alliance in a new direction. He drew loud applause when he talked of a world without nuclear weapons and again when he called for steps to counter climate change.

But analysts said some parts of Obama's message may not go down well here, particularly his warning that "Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less" on security.

Most notably, he declared Afghanistan needs "our troops and your troops." That could prove awkward for German governments and others trying to balance their commitment to the war in Afghanistan against polls calling the mission unpopular with Europeans.

Germany has more than 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in the relatively peaceful north, and has repeatedly resisted pressure from its NATO partners to send them to the volatile south.

Obama mentioned Iraq, a war he has opposed from the start, only in passing. But in discussing Afghanistan, he said, "no one welcomes war. ... But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success." He referred repeatedly to the Berlin airlift, launched by the Allies 60 years ago when the Russians sought to isolate the Western part of the city.

Now, he said, the enemy is different but the need for an alliance is the same as the world stares down terrorism and the extremism that supports it.