Watch Hub's interview with Powell

Colin Powell urged Oklahomans to embrace the nation’s democratic ideals and avoid excessively fearing terrorism in a conversation to a capacity crowd yesterday at Catlett Music Center.

Powell, who was secretary of state during President Bush’s first term, said America’s current challenges are less ominous than those of the Cold War, when two communist empires — China and the Soviet Union — openly challenged Western democracies for global power.

By comparison, today’s conflicts are smaller and more manageable, according to Powell. He said today’s challenges seem more difficult because the modern media provide plenty of information about global conflicts, but the coverage fails to make the world understandable.

“These kind of crises tend to get put on page one without any context,” Powell said. “This doesn’t make them any less important or any less dangerous, but it’s not the whole picture.”

Powell said the Cold War was won through containing communism and upholding Western ideals of democracy and diplomacy.

“While we knew that these were evil empires, we were also willing to reach out and work with them and talk to them and let the power of our system slowly infiltrate their thinking,” he said.

America does not need to change its free society to defeat terrorism, Powell said. He said the U.S. is still a respected global leader, but our international standing has dropped because of the war in Iraq. He questioned the need for the rough tactics of the war on terrorism used in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

“Terrorism is an enemy, but as we fight terrorists and do everything we can to defeat them, let’s make sure that we don’t start to change who we are and closing ourselves off from the rest of the world,” Powell said.

He said the world still looks to America for leadership because of our ideals, and said we cannot duck the challenges facing the country in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. He also emphasized that the Middle East will not become peaceful until the Palestenian-Israeli conflict is resolved peaceably.

Powell said he anticipates a future where the greatest conflicts will be economic rather than for military superiority. He said America needs to address its energy problems while protecting the environment from further degradation.

Powell also said the nation needs to invest more in education, particularly at the K-12 level, to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

The audience gave Powell several standing ovations during his remarks.

Michael Linville, an entrepreneurship sophomore, said Powell’s message was encouraging and filled with hope.

“We can’t give up hope,” Linville said in response to a question about the key message of Powell’s remarks. “Even if things don’t look good right now, things will get better and we just need to hold true to our values and remain a unified country.”