US: On the eve of a visit to Europe to commemorate D-Day 60 years ago, US President George Bush compared the fight against terrorists to the struggle against tyranny in second World War reports Conor O'Clery.
"Our goal, the goal of this generation, is the same", Mr Bush told graduates of the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
"Just as events in Europe determined the outcome of the Cold War," he said, "events in the Middle East will set the course of our current struggle." In a direct reply to critics who say the war in Iraq had increased the threat of terrorism against the US, Mr Bush stated, "If that region is abandoned to dictators and terrorists, it will be a constant source of violence and alarm, exporting killers of increasing destructive power to attack America and other free nations." But "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."