US President George W. Bush today compared his war on terror to America's mission in World War II, likening the September 11th attacks to Pearl Harbour and the upheavals in the Middle East to Cold War Europe.
In a speech to hundreds of Air Force Academy graduates, the Republican president likened the Islamist militancy of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network to the "aggressive ideologies" of the 20th century.
US President George W Bush
"Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War, events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle," Mr Bush told an audience of 30,000 who packed the Air Force Academy's football stadium.
"If that region is abandoned to terrorists and dictators, it will be a constant source of violence and alarm," he added. 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."
He told the cheering graduates that the United States would triumph now as it did 60 years ago in the last world war.
"Like the Second World War, our present conflict began with a ruthless surprise attack on the United States. We will not forget that treachery and we will accept nothing less than victory over the enemy," Mr Bush said.
"The best way to protect America is to stay on the offensive."
Mr Bush travels to Europe tomorrow amid fears of violence in Italy, where demonstrators opposed to their country's role as a chief US ally in Iraq plan widespread demonstrations during a 36-hour presidential visit.
Meanwhile, US officials have been forced to compromise on the length of stay for American troops in Iraq as part of negotiations aimed at securing a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning the new Iraqi government.
More than 800 US soldiers have died in Iraq, the vast majority since the cessation of major combat operations, while US troops continue to clash with insurgents from both the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim communities. An estimated 10,000 Iraqi civilians and thousands more Iraqi military have died.