Posted on 05/28/2006 2:28:43 PM PDT by traumer
President George W Bush has likened the US "war on terror" to the Cold War fight against communism after World War II, at a military graduation ceremony.
Speaking to cadets at West Point military academy in New York state, Mr Bush said the US would not rest until the threat of terror had been removed.
The 861 new graduates must fight a war against terror that knew no boundaries, the president told them.
"The war began on my watch but it's going to end on your watch," he said.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Bush talked of his aim of spreading peace through the Middle East, saying repression there was creating conditions for global terrorism.
We will complete the mission - George W Bush
"We're still in the early stages of this struggle for freedom and, like those first years of the Cold War, we've seen setbacks and challenges and days that have tested America's resolve, yet we've also seen days of victory and hope," he said.
He commended former President Harry Truman, whose administration lacked popularity but who he said had laid the groundwork of success against communism.
Mr Bush drew parallels between Mr Truman's Cold War efforts and his own in fighting global terrorism.
The cadets were the first to arrive at the academy after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
The president noted that more than 50 of their fellow cadets had already seen combat, and 34 former cadets had died in the "war on terror".
"We will honour the memory of those brave souls. We will finish the task for which they gave their lives. We will complete the mission," he said.
In the past four years alone, more than 110 million human beings across the world have joined the ranks of the free -- and this is only the beginning. The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom -- and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people and every nation....
And like the Cold War, they're seeking weapons of mass murder that would allow them to deliver catastrophic destruction to our country. If our enemies succeed in acquiring such weapons, they will not hesitate to use them, which means they would pose a threat to America as great as the Soviet Union.
Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory.
The war started on Clinton's watch, not Bush's -- we just didn't know it.
It started long before Clinton, and our failure to react in a timely and resolute manner led directly to 9/11 and the continual growth of terrorism world wide today. At least Bush fought back.
Having said that, that statement was terrible and his speech writer should be fired. In one sentence he showed his apparent misunderstanding of how the Muslim Brotherhood has grown over the years, and let Clinton completely off the hook. Bad choice of words.
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