Bush warns: US still a target

2005-02-03 12:10

Washington - President George W Bush warned Americans on Wednesday that the United States remained a target of terrorists but pledged to leave no stone unturned to give future generations the "freedom from fear."

"Our country is still the target of terrorists who want to kill many, and intimidate us all, and we will stay on the offensive against them, until the fight is won," Bush said in his State of the Union address.

Bush, who launched an unprecedented "war on terror" after the September 11 2001 deadly attacks on the United States, said "during this time of war, we must continue to support our military and give them the tools for victory."

He said that the al-Qaeda terror network that attacked the United States still had leaders but that many of its top commanders have been removed.

"There are still governments that sponsor and harbour terrorists - but their number has declined. There are still regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction - but no longer without attention and without consequence."

An America safe from danger

Bush said a key responsibility to future generations of Americans was "to leave them an America that is safe from danger, and protected by peace.

"We will pass along to our children all the freedoms we enjoy - and chief among them is freedom from fear," he said.

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who masterminded the September 11 attacks, remains at large. The United States has offered up to $25m each for bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In the three and a half years since the 9/11 attacks which killed about 3 000 people, the United States has taken extraordinary measures to protect Americans.

It created a new government department to defend the country, focused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on preventing terrorism, launched a reform of its intelligence agencies and broke up terror cells across the country.

The United States also expanded research on defences against biological and chemical attacks and confronted terror networks worldwide through a coalition linking allies.

"Pursuing our enemies is a vital commitment of the war on terror," Bush said.

But he pointed out that in the long term, peace could only be achieved by eliminating conditions that feed "radicalism and ideologies of murder."

Bush highlighted the recent beginning of reform and democracy in the Palestinian territories and "the power of freedom to break old patterns of violence and failure.

"If whole regions of the world remain in despair and grow in hatred, they will be the recruiting grounds for terror, and that terror will stalk America and other free nations for decades," he said.

Bush emphasised that the only force powerful enough to stop tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, was the "force of human freedom.

- AFP