UNITED NATIONS - President Bush challenged the nations of the world yesterday to join forcefully in the war against terrorism, warning that they will be held accountable for how they respond and that those harboring or aiding terrorists will pay a price.
"In this war of terror, each of us must answer for what we have done or what we have left undone," Bush told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
"The time for sympathy has now passed; the time for action has now arrived," said Bush as he delivered a set of marching orders based on steps demanded of all United Nations members by the Security Council on Sept. 28.
Nations are required, Bush told the General Assembly, to crack down on terrorist financing, share intelligence, cooperate in law enforcement action, and deny terrorists shelter and weapons.
In addition, "every known terrorist camp must be shut down, its operators apprehended and evidence of their arrest presented to the United Nations," Bush said. But he went further: "We're asking for a comprehensive commitment to this fight. We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them."
He described the stakes in stark terms: "The only alternative to victory is a nightmare world where every city is a potential killing field."
The speech, Bush's first to the world body, marked the president's most comprehensive appeal to the international community since the terror attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that prompted him to launch a military, legal, financial and diplomatic war on terrorism.
Delivered the day after the first significant military setback to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which provides sanctuary to the al-Qaida terror network blamed for the attacks, Bush's warning to other regimes that harbor terrorists took on added weight.
In stern tones, Bush underscored his determination not to stop with the defeat of the Taliban and al-Qaida. He said that "every regime that sponsors terror" will pay a price and threatened unspecified "consequences" for countries that support some terrorist groups while condemning others.
Although Bush has repeatedly said he wants to target all terrorist organizations of "global reach" and the states that protect them, administration officials have stressed in recent weeks that the goal for now is to destroy al-Qaida, which is headed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden.
