North Star Writers Group

President Bush gave an awesome speech to the United Nations today, in which he effectively called out the people of the Middle East and, to a large extent, Islam itself. He went over the heads of the autocratic and dictatorial "leaders" of the likes of Iran and Syria, addressing the people of those nations directly, challenging them to choose their future path - moderation or terrorism. He also, perhaps more deliberately than we know, called out the U.N. itself to choose its future path - effectiveness or irrelevance.

"Today, I'd like to speak directly to the people across the broader Middle East: My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false, and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror. We respect Islam, but we will protect our people from those who pervert Islam to sow death and destruction. Our goal is to help you build a more tolerant and hopeful society that honors people of all faiths and promotes the peace."

President Bush begins by extending America's hand, and showing that there is nothing up her sleeve. This, in turn, challenges the people of the Middle East to either grasp it or slap it away. For some time, we've been repeatedly told that "moderate Muslims" do not support terror, that we should not lump all Muslims together and so on. Yet the silence from this supposed silent majority has been deafening. If they cannot manage to find the courage to finally speak up en masse and marginalize the violent element in their midst (which perpetrates atrocities in the name of the religion these moderates follow, which you would think would motivate them to stop this blasphemy), then it's time to dispose of the proposition that there is any such thing as a moderate Muslim. Or if there is, they're too scared of the terrorist element to do the right thing, which doesn't speak well of Islam (or its "moderates").

One way or the other, a choice will now have to be made by the Muslim masses, and the truth will be made clear: Either Islam will clean up its own house and stop the terrorists amongst them once and for all, led by the moderate masses and aided by America and the west, or they will side with the terrorist radicals and World War IV, Islam vs. Civilization, will be officially on in full.

"Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed – it must be chosen. From Beirut to Baghdad, people are making the choice for freedom. And the nations gathered in this chamber must make a choice, as well: Will we support the moderates and reformers who are working for change across the Middle East – or will we yield the future to the terrorists and extremists? America has made its choice: We will stand with the moderates and reformers."

President Bush then turns the same light of truth onto the feckless United Nations, and employs the same tactic. He shows America's hand and challenges the corrupt and morally blind body to take one last chance, one last opportunity to join in this grand endeavor. For too long the U.N. has paid lip-service but done nothing, morally equivocated between good and evil, and been bought off by those it was supposed to discipline. And worst of all, it has paid no price for having done so, which has allowed it to drift ever further off course.

One way or another, a choice will also have to be made by the United Nations, and the truth will again be made clear. Either the United Nations will clean itself up, stop turning the truth on its head and a blind eye to evil when it's inconvenient to face it down, or it will be consigned to the dustbin of history as the League of Nations was before it – a completely impotent, corrupt and morally bankrupt body that serves no useful purpose in existing, so unwilling and incapable is it of carrying out and seeing through to completion even the most simple task and righteous cause.

"Recently a courageous group of Arab and Muslim intellectuals wrote me a letter. In it, they said this: "The shore of reform is the only one on which any lights appear, even though the journey demands courage and patience and perseverance." The United Nations was created to make that journey possible. Together we must support the dreams of good and decent people who are working to transform a troubled region -- and by doing so, we will advance the high ideals on which this institution was founded."

So which shall it be, moderate Muslims and U.N.? Will we bring the Middle East to its rightful place in 21st Century civilization and ensure that a diplomatic body lives up to the purpose for which it was created? Or will we see two institutions once held in high esteem reduced to the lowest rung on the ladder of humanity, and possibly be made extinct? To use the phrase coined by President Reagan back in 1964, a time for choosing is once again at hand. We can only hope they choose wisely.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK26. Request permission to publish here.