Responding to Kerry's "nuisance" comment from the NYT, President Bush said the following today in Hobbs, NM:

Just this weekend, we saw new evidence that Senator Kerry fundamentally misunderstands the war on terror. Earlier he questioned whether it was really a war at all, describing it as primarily a law enforcement and intelligence-gathering operation instead of a threat that demands the full use of American power.

Now, just this weekend, Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to, quote, "nuisance," end quote, and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling.

See, I couldn't disagree more. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance. Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorist networks, and spreading freedom and liberty around the world!(Cheers, applause.)

Even if we destroyed a thousand terrorist networks and spread freedom and liberty around the world one country after another, wouldn't there always be new terrorist networks somewhere out on the horizon?

Will we know when we've finally defeated the abstract notion called "terror," or will this be a perpetual war?