While the United States has experienced success in the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq, there is still a great deal of work to be done, Michael Ledeen, a senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a political think tank, said Tuesday.

“We cannot even begin to talk about peace in the Middle East until the war is over,” Ledeen said.

Ledeen called for democratic resistance in order to win the war on terror, which he said involved removing terror-friendly regimes.

“Terrorism is an instrument used against the free world,” Ledeen said. “It is aimed against the free well-to-do societies because of tyranny.” He explained that four countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia – were main proponents of this tyranny, using terrorism as a desperate response to misery.

“The single biggest cause of terrorism is boredom,” Ledeen said. “Terrorism fulfills an existential meaning for certain people of certain sorts, and these certain people happen to be Muslims.”

Ledeen said that terrorism was common to Islam in the same way that communism was important to Soviets. “People become involved in terrorism because it is fulfilling and meaningful to them as a people,” he said.

Ledeen responded to questions about the war in Iraq by defending the use of American military force.

“[The Iraqis] like us. They love us for freeing them. They don’t miss Saddam. But now the problem is that they don’t want us to run away; they want us to stay,” Ledeen said, adding that the United States had entered a difficult stage in terms of the role of democratic government in Iraq.

“Just look what happens when the U.S. moves,” Ledeen said.

Ledeen argued that the decision of many European countries to move toward economic power and away from military power was flawed. “Military power is still important,” he said.

Ledeen said that moderate Middle Eastern states, especially Iran, could be in danger of losing their current form of government as a result of the American invasion.

“For the first time, there were pro-democracy demonstrations in Saudi Arabia. Now that Iraq and Afghanistan are free, other nations are beginning to see the benefits. Freedom is a contagious thing,” Ledeen said.

In response to the spread of freedom, students asked about the complications of imposing or changing a nation’s political culture. Ledeen promptly responded, “I’d be happy to change the political culture!” He explained how countries such as Germany and Japan were able to work toward democracy in less than a generation. Therefore, the changing of a political culture takes time, but democracy works.

As Ledeen concluded his discussion, he said that he remains worried about the Iraq situation. “The fact that we are in too much of a hurry to leave could make for future political and democratic struggle,” he said. Ledeen, however, stressed that democracy can be successful, and that self-government of a nation is not that difficult.

“They [the Middle Eastern nations] know that what they’ve got doesn’t work,” Ledeen said. “All of their political systems have been failures. There are better systems.”

Ledeen is a contributor to the National Review and several cable news stations. The event, which was held in White Gravenor, was sponsored by the Edmund Burke Society.