Bush renames 'war on terrorism'

2004-08-06 19:18

Washington - Nearly three years after declaring a "war on terrorism," US President George W. Bush said Friday that there's a more precise name for the campaign sparked by the September 11 2001 attacks.

"We actually misnamed the 'war on terror.' It ought to be 'the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies and who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world,'" he said in a speech.

The president made the remarks to 7 000 minority members of the media attending the "UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention" in downtown Washington before he headed to New Hampshire for a reelection campaign stop.

He was describing the people behind violence in Iraq, where more than 300 people were believed to have died in two days of heavy fighting between foreign troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen.

- AFP