He raised the example of a former prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who did not wait for Hitler's Nazis to attack Canada before sending troops to fight in the Second World War.
He quoted King's words directly: "We cannot defend our country and save our homes and families by waiting for our enemies to attack us. To remain on the defensive is the surest way to bring the war to Canada."
The president added: "Mackenzie King was correct then and we must always remember his words today... There is only one way to deal with enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder the innocent and the unsuspecting. We must take the fight to them."
Read a line in a book last night about Bush. After meeting with group of Jewish leaders, one of them afterwards said to him: "Mr. President, I didn't vote for you, but if you had been president in 1938, I now think the Holocaust might not have happened."