It has been five years since al-Qaida terrorists attacked the U.S., destroying the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and damaging the Pentagon building outside Washington D.C.
President George W. Bush says the terrorists who struck on September 11, 2001 "are men without conscience – but they are not madmen." He says, we have learned "a great deal about the enemy":
"They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil, but not insane. These al-Qaida terrorists and those who share their ideology are violent Sunni extremists. They're driven by a radical and perverted vision of Islam that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women and children in the pursuit of political power."
"The goal of these Sunni extremists," says Mr. Bush, "is to remake the entire Muslim world in their radical image":
"In pursuit of their imperial aims, they say there can be no compromise or dialogue with those they call 'infidels' – a category that includes America, the world's free nations, Jews, and all Muslims who reject their extreme vision of Islam. They reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the free world."
Mr. Bush says that the al-Qaida terrorists and their allies "have made their intentions as clear as [Communist Russia's Vladimir] Lenin and [Nazi Germany's Adolph] Hitler before them":
"The question is: Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say? America and our coalition partners made our choice. We're taking the words of the enemy seriously."
Mr. Bush says the U.S., its friends and allies are "on the offensive, and we will not rest, we will not retreat, and we will not withdraw from the fight, until this threat to civilization has been removed."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
