This War Is Just Beginning, Bush Insists
This war is just beginning, Bush insists
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...6-2703,00.html
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
September 13, 2006
DECLARING the world in the "early hours" of a struggle between tyranny and freedom, US President George W. Bush used a prime-time Oval Office address on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to try to bolster flagging public support for the war in Iraq.
Closing a day of mourning in the US on the September 11 attacks, Mr Bush told Americans and the world yesterday: "Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone.
"They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad." He added that the war on terrorism was "the calling of our generation".
His address came just hours before Syrian security forces thwarted a terrorist attack by four gunmen on the US embassy in Damascus. The attackers reportedly shouted religious slogans and tried to throw grenades into the yard of the embassy before being surrounded by Syrian security.
Three of the terrorists were killed and one wounded, with one Syrian guard killed in the gunbattle before the security forces surrounded the fortified US compound and sealed off the area.
They did not detonate their main weapon, a van loaded with pipe bombs strapped to propane gas canisters, but they blew up a smaller vehicle.
The attack came a day after Osama bin Laden's No2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned in a video that the Gulf and Israel would be the next targets of al-Qa'ida.
Relations between Damascus and Washington have been strained over the US-led war in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria's support for militants opposed to Israel.
The September 11 attacks on New York and Washington killed nearly 3000 people and galvanised the US into launching two wars which, along with other counter-terrorism initiatives, have cost Washington more than $US430 billion ($570 billion).
"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over," Mr Bush said. "The war is not over - and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."
