Leaders pay homage to Pentagon 9/11 victims - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Leaders pay homage to Pentagon 9/11 victims

President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen on Saturday remembered the victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon in a ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial.

“We honor them with our presence and certainly with this memorial,” Mullen said at a Pentagon ceremony for those who died in the building and on the plane that hit it.

“Mostly, we honor them with our lives, with what we have done from that day to this — the sacrifices we have borne, the laughter we have shared, the hope we have dared to let back into our hearts.”

The ceremony included family members of the 184 who were killed in the 2001 attack on the sprawling Defense Department headquarters.

The war to go after al-Qaida — and Taliban leaders harboring them in Afghanistan — is now nine years old.

“Today we also reflect on what those attacks meant for an entire generation of young Americans who answered the call to serve,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said of the armed forces.

Obama recalled “that awful morning” when “a sorry band of men” who perverted religion attacked the U.S. in hopes of demoralizing and dividing the country.

“Today we declare once more we will never hand them that victory ... for our cause is just, our spirit is strong and our resolve unwavering,” Obama said.

“We will not given in to their hatred,” Obama said, despite the terrorists’ efforts to spark conflicts among faiths. “As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam.”

This year’s remembrances of the 2001 attacks take place with growing public suspicion of Muslims, an emotional dispute over an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero in New York City, and a Florida pastor’s threat to burn Qurans.

“This is a time of difficulty for our country,” Obama said before the ceremony, in his radio and Internet address. “And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness — to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common.

“But on this day, we are reminded that at our best, we do not give in to this temptation,” Obama said.

Related reading

• West Point marks 9/11 prior to football game

• Disputes overshadow Sept. 11 remembrances

9/11 coverage from Military Times

• Multimedia: Sept. 11 memorial at Pentagon (2008)

• Photo gallery: Scenes from Pentagon on 9/11 (2008)

• Photo gallery: Scenes from Pentagon, NYC on 9/11

DISCUSS: 9/11 and its aftermath