Five Years Later, America Looks Back on 9/11

President Bush attended memorial services this morning, somberly remembering and reflecting on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In New York City, the president stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck that had been destroyed at the World Trade Center. It was a beautiful late summer morning, just as it was five years earlier when four commercial jets were hijacked from airports on the east coast. Two of the planes slammed into the towers of the World Trade Center, eventually leading to the collapse and complete destruction of both buildings. A third plane was intentionally crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed in western Pennsylvania when the passengers heroically attempted to overtake the terrorists.

While the memories of that day are still fresh in the minds of every American, it seems like an eternity has passed since that morning. Our vocabulary has changed to include terms such as "Homeland Security", "threat level", and "insurgent", among countless others. We now live with the knowledge that we are never truly safe from future terrorist attacks. American soldiers are fighting and dying every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein is in custody. Osama bin Laden remains at large. There are secret CIA prisons where the most important terrorist suspects are held and interrogated. Our telephone conversations may no longer be private. The world has changed in many ways since September 11, 2001.

The president told NBC's "Today" show that "In the long term, we've got to defeat an ideology of hate with an ideology of hope." That’s a broad statement about an enormous mission – one that will define the future of the world in the years to come. At this time, the outlook is not bright. Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war and Afghanistan is in ruins. But we are still very early in what is proving to be a long and painful process toward a new world understanding and sustainable peace. There is hope. But there is also a tremendous amount of work to be done.