BBC | Dimbleby Lecture by Bill Clinton - The Struggle For The Soul of The 21st Century

Former US President, Bill Clinton, presented the lecture in London on 14 December 2001.

The lecture was broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday 16 December 2001.

His speech considers what is happening in the war against terrorism, and calls for a long-term strategy to address underlying problems in the countries involved. Having read widely on Islam and the Middle East in the past year, Clinton delivers a message calling for tolerance and issues a challenge to the Muslim world to acknowledge its responsibility for encouraging open debate and democracy.

I caught the last half of this lecture. I was enthralled. Despite a very hoarse delivery, the studio audience, and I dare say the viewing audience, were also spellbound. It was a great speech. Full of compassion. The full text of the speech is online. The final paragraph of which is:

"It's great that your kids will live to be ninety years old but I don't want it to be behind barbed wire. It's great that we're gonna have all these benefits of the modern world, but I don't want you to feel like you're emotional prisoners. And I don't want you to look at people who look different from you and see a potential enemy instead of a fellow traveller. We can make the world of our dreams for our children, but since it's a world without walls, it will have to be a home for all our children."

Update: There's a discussion going on at Jim's place (mainly) about Clinton rather than the speech. Sigh! Seems to me that people would rather rake over old coals rather than push forward on things that really matter. As a parent of two children, I dearly want a better legacy for them.