The 48-minute news conference came six days after Bush outlined a broad agenda to spread democracy worldwide in his inaugural address and a week before he gives his State of the Union address, in which advancing democracy is expected to play an important part.
This is one part of a broader, comprehensive agenda that the United States is pursuing -- including reducing our nuclear arsenal and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons -- an agenda that will bring us closer to our ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
And the Shia extremists have achieved something that al Qaeda has so far failed to do: In 1979, they took control of a major power, the nation of Iran, subjugating its proud people to a regime of tyranny, and using that nation's resources to fund the spread of terror and pursue their radical agenda.