Washington: One of the biggest challenges before America is to make sure that "we continue to fight and win the war on terror", US President George W Bush said on June 16.

Addressing small business owners in New Jersey, Bush said the US has got to stay on the offensive in the war on terror and defended the decision to attack Iraq, saying America had acted on a "threat" from the "dictator of Iraq".

"The best way to protect the homeland is to hunt the killers down, one at a time, and bring them to justice, which is what America will do," he said.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, said Bush, shocked the US into recognising that oceans can no longer protect it from harm. "Therefore, it acted because this nation will not be intimidated or blackmailed by terror."

"This nation," he said, "will do what it takes to defend something we hold dear to our hearts, and that is our freedom. And we acted.

"We acted on a doctrine that says, 'We will bring you to justice because of what you did to the American citizens. And by the way, if you harbour a killer, if you feed a killer, if you hide a killer, you are just as guilty as the killer'.

"We acted and the Taleban is no longer in power in Afghanistan, which is not only good for the security of the free world, it is incredibly good for the people who suffered in Afghanistan under barbaric rule," Bush said.

This nation, he said, acted on a "threat from the dictator of Iraq".

Obviously referring to those who say that the Iraq war was not justified because the reason he gave for it was to find and destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and no such weapons have been found so far in Iraq, Bush said, "Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history – revisionist historians is what I like to call them.

"Saddam Hussein was a threat to America and the free world in 1991, in 1998, in 2003. He continually ignored the demands of the free world, so the United States and friends and allies acted. And one thing is for certain: Saddam Hussein is no longer a threat to the United States and our friends and allies," he said.

Bush said, "We have got a lot of brave people still on the move, still looking for terrorists. We're co- operating with our friends and allies, we're sharing intelligence, we're running down their money trails.

"But one thing is certain for the American people to know, that this government will use whatever technologies and skill is necessary to secure America by hunting down those who would harm us, one person at a time. It is a charge we have been given and it is a charge we will keep."

PTI