Bush pledges victory over terrorism, urges country to stay patient in time of recession
By RON FOURNIER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Tuesday night that tens of thousands of terrorists still threaten America — “ticking time bombs, set to go off” — and unveiled his plans to hunt them across the globe. He pledged a battle of equal vigor to revive the nation’s ailing economy.

“We will prevail in war, and we will defeat this recession,”' Bush said. In his first State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, the president fleshed out his vision for the war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan — to a dozen countries that he said harbor terrorists and “an axis of evil'” of three more that seek weapons of mass destruction.

He urged Congress to pass his tax-cutting economic package and challenged Americans to commit two years or 4,000 hours to community service in an effort to tap the surge in patriotism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We can overcome evil with greater good,” the president said.

Amid extraordinary security, leaders of the congressional, judicial and executive branches gathered beneath the same Capitol dome that officials believe was targeted during the attacks on Washington and New York.

Dick Cheney, who has spent many nights in undisclosed locations because of security precautions, took the vice president’s traditional place on the rostrum behind the president during the speech.

In the gallery, first lady Laura Bush was joined by several guests in her VIP box high above the well of the House, including interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and firefighters, soldiers and other citizen-heroes whose stories helped buy a war weary nation.

“The men and women of our armed forces have delivered a message to every enemy of the United States,” Bush said. “You will not escape the justice of this nation.”

Outlining his post-Afghanistan battle plans, the president vowed to unearth “a terrorist underworld” of training camps in at least a dozen countries, including the Philippines, Bosnia and Somalia. He said nations will be given a chance to wipe out terrorists themselves, and the United States is willing to assist their efforts.

But, he warned: “If they do not act, America will.”

In his strongest terms yet, Bush called North Korea, Iraq and Iran part of an “axis of evil,” warning that their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction pose a “grave and growing danger” and will not be tolerated.

“I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer,” Bush said.

The nation’s 43rd president addressed Americans with a degree of national unity conferred on no other chief executive since Franklin D. Roosevelt. In polls, more than 80 percent of Americans say they approve of his performance.

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