From the October 07, 2005 edition

Bush frames battle of 21st century

In a major speech, he outlined five key steps to combat terror.
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - President Bush went on the offensive Thursday with a
spirited justification for the war on terror that sought to refocus
Americans on what he sees as the central undertaking of this century:
defeating the forces of Islamic radicalism.

In a speech that outlined his administration's step-by-step plan for
confronting the 21st century's "ideology of hatred" and that restated
why the battle is so important, Mr. Bush sought to address not only
waning attention to the war on terrorism but also the debate over
exactly why the US and the West are targets.

Citing 9/11 and a string of terrorist acts since 2001 stretching from
Bali to London, Bush said, "No act of ours invited the rage of the
killers - and no concession, bribe, or act of appeasement would change
... their plans" for burying liberty.

With those words, the president is striving to end the debate over
whether continuing terrorist acts are a response to US and Western
policies - for example the war in Iraq - or a fulfillment of radical
jihadists' own ideology.

"I don't think the president has ever been anything like this
comprehensive," Anthony Cordesman, a terrorism expert at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says of the
speech. Not only was it a "coherent statement of American policy," 
but it "has implications that go far beyond what he has said before."

For example, Bush repeatedly referred to Iran and Syria as countries
that continue to abet terrorists around the world, and thus as players
on the wrong side of the battle.

[...]

Full article at "Christian Science Monitor"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1007/p01s02-usfp.html


Cheers, Steve..

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