WEST POINT, N.Y. - President Bush told nearly 1,000 graduates at the U.S. Military Academy yesterday that the Cold War doctrines of containment and deterrence were irrelevant in a world where the only strategy for defeating America's new enemies was to strike them first.

"If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," the president said, speaking at the commencement of the 204th graduating class of West Point, the nation's oldest military academy. "We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge."

In a toughly worded speech that seemed aimed at preparing Americans for a potential war with Iraq, Bush added, "The only path to safety is action, and this nation will act." Bush did not mention Iraq by name, but he warned that "even weak states and closed groups could attain a catastrophic power to strike great nations."

The United States' greatest threats, Bush said, lie "at the perilous crossroads of radicalism and technology."

Bush's speech, delivered in a football stadium under a cloudless sky to long gray lines of somber, white-gloved graduates, was a forceful distillation and refinement of the war themes of his presidency since Sept. 11. "We will not leave the safety of America at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants," Bush said.

But it was also a personal and, at times, emotional appeal to the graduates, whose West Point predecessors include Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, the veterans of more conventional American wars.

"History has also issued its call to your generation," Bush said. "In your last year, America was attacked by a ruthless and resourceful enemy. You graduate from this academy at a time of war, taking your place in an American military that is powerful and honorable."

Looking directly at the graduates, Bush added, "I am proud of the men and women who have fought on my orders. The nation respects and trusts our military, and we are confident of your victories to come."

Although the cadets were not the first in a generation to graduate at a time of war - in the spring of 1999, the United States was bombing Kosovo - they were the first since Pearl Harbor to have confronted an attack on American soil. Many of them know graduates from recent classes who have served in Afghanistan.

Bush also warned Americans once again of threats still facing the nation. "The dangers have not passed," he said. "This government and the American people are on watch. We are ready. Because we know that terrorists have more money and more men and more plans."

In his weekly radio address, broadcast after he spoke at West Point, Bush said that in providing the "ultimate service" to the nation, the graduating cadets set an example that civilians, too, could follow.

He renewed his call for every citizen to volunteer 4,000 hours of public service during their lifetimes, and urged Congress to enact his proposed legislation expanding federal volunteer programs.