- President Bush has strongly defended the US-led war on
terror, casting it as a struggle between freedom and tyranny similar to
World War II.
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- In a speech to new air force officers, he said they were
fighting the same war as those who battled the Nazis.
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- The war on terror, he said, resembles "the great
clashes of the last century" between democracy and totalitarianism.
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- Mr Bush was speaking at the Air Force Academy, ahead
of ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
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- He told graduating officers in Colorado Springs: "Each
of you receiving a commission today in the United States military will
also carry the hopes of free people everywhere."
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- Like the US involvement in World War II, he said the
war on terror began with a surprise attack on the US.
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- "Like the murderous ideologies of the last century,
the ideology of murderers reaches across borders," President Bush
added.
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- The "enemies of freedom", he went on, mistakenly
assumed that the US was "decadent" and would collapse.
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- "In those calls we hear echoes of other enemies
in other times, the same swagger," he said.
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- Democracy
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- The president insisted that al-Qaeda and its supporters
would be defeated.
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- "We will accept nothing less than victory over the
enemy," he said.
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- He told the new officers that the US would continue to
strike terror groups around the world.
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- "The best way to protect America is to stay on the
offensive."
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- Mr Bush highlighted the importance of the Middle East,
and re-affirmed his policy of fostering democracy there.
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- "If that region is abandoned to terrorists and dictators,
it will be a constant source of violence and alarm," he said.
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- "If that region grows in democracy and prosperity
and hope, the terrorist movement will lose its sponsors, lose its recruits
and lose the festering grievances that keep terrorists in business."
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- In the long term, the president added, "we expect
a higher standard of reform and democracy from our friends in the region."
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- Mr Bush also defended his administration's controversial
record on Iraq.
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- He said that country was "more secure with Saddam
Hussein in a prison cell".
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3771401.stm
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