WASHINGTON, March 13 - A group of radical and conservative figures in the U.S. has launched a fresh campaign Tuesday, March 12, 2002, to prolong backing for U.S. “war on terrorism” and drum up further support among Americans for further military actions abroad.

The group made of neo-conservative figures said Tuesday that they wanted to ''take to task those groups and individuals who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the war we are facing.''

The group, called Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT), is headed by former President Ronald Reagan's education secretary, William Bennett, and is being funded primarily, for now, by Lawrence Kadish, chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and a top donor to the Republican Party, according to Bennett.

Other senior advisors to the group, who appeared at a press conference here Tuesday, include former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director R. James Woolsey; Frank Gaffney, the president of the ultra-hawkish Center for Security Policy (CSP) and former Reagan Pentagon official and William P. Barr former U.S. attorney general. The group even includes Walid Phares, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and is the author of The Iranian Islamic Revolution, and Lebanese Christian Nationalism.

''Professional and amateur critics of America are finding their voice,'' warned Bennett, noting recent criticism by some Democratic leaders, as well as former President Jimmy Carter, of the many uncertainties that surround Bush's anti-terrorist campaign.

''It is important that we maintain popular support for the war,'' said Gaffney, who added that criticism of the administration's conduct of the war could be ''interpreted in such a way as to hurt national resolve...(and) embolden the enemy.''

AVOT officials say that its objective is to “strengthen American public opinion as the war on terrorism moves forward.” “AVOT will promote the democratic ideals of freedom, liberty, equality, and human rights-the very virtues terrorist groups and terrorist states wish to eradicate-and answer those who seek to erode our nation's resolve and commitment to fight and defeat the evil of terrorism,” AVOT site said.

“The terrorist threat posed by radical Islamists and others knows no bounds and is targeted directly at our lives and our institutions. We are a target not because of anything we have done, but because of who we are, what we stand for, what we believe, and what our nation was founded upon: the twin principles of liberty and equality,” a statement by the group said. “We are their problem, not a part of their solution. This will be a long war,” it said.

On its website, AVOT publishes a series of articles and comments by other radical groups and individuals targeting Islam and Muslims the enemy. “Why the Muslims Misjudged Us,” said the headline of a column that appeared in the Wall Street Journal and places on the AVOT website. “They hate us because their culture is backward and corrupt,” said the article by Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian. He is the author most recently of Carnage and Culture.

The initiation of the war-mongering group, heralded with a full-page ad appearing in Sunday's edition of the New York Times, coincides with new polls showing unrelenting popular support for the "war against terrorism" in Afghanistan and its extension into the Philippines and Yemen.

The Bush Republican administration is sending hundreds of military advisers to these areas and could be planning a major military operation in Iraq - which it accuses of building weapons of mass destruction and links with international terrorists.

Nonetheless, some Democrats have protested lately about the administration's unwillingness to confer with Congress about its real goals, the open-ended nature of the war, and the speed at which U.S. military commitments are expanding.

However, in an increasingly radicalized society, little criticism to the right-wing leaning administration has so far been raised on humanitarian grounds, or arguing for peace with Islam.

Last month, Carter criticized Bush's use of the term "axis of evil," arguing that it was ''overly simplistic and counter- productive,'' a statement which was cited by AVOT in a list of recent published remarks which it suggests might give aid and comfort to the enemy.

“We must devote attention to the definition and shape of our victory in the present war. In the long run, fortitude or hesitation about our principles will determine victory or defeat. We shall work to fortify public opinion by argument, use of mass communication, and direct mail,” said the group’s statement.

The external threat, it said, consists of ''an enemy no less dangerous and no less determined than the twin menaces of fascism and communism we faced in the 20th century'' and include, according to Woolsey, with ''the angry ends'' of Sunni and Shia Islam and Baathists in Iraq.

''We are at war with an ideology," the former CIA director declared. Internal threats, according to the group, include ''those who are attempting to use this opportunity to promulgate their agenda of 'blame America first'.'' The ad, which cost some 128,000 dollars, stated, adding that ''both threats stem from either a hatred for the American ideals of freedom and equality or a misunderstanding of those ideals and their practice.''

"The radical Islamists who attacked us did so because of our democratic ideals, our belief in, and practice of liberty and equality," according to the ad. "AVOT will take to task those who blame America first and who do not understand - or who are unwilling to defend - our fundamental principles."

In that respect, the new group appears to resemble an earlier effort to keep an eye on statements about the war on terrorism on university campuses by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), on whose board Bennett also serves.