Bush vows to win the first 'great struggle of the century'

President Bush vowed victory in the “first great struggle of a new century” today as he led the United States in marking shattering terrorist attacks of one year ago.

“The murder of innocents cannot be explained, only endured,” a sombre president said as he stood outside a rebuilt Pentagon, the first of three sites he was visiting on a day of remembrance and resolve.

The September 11 observances unfolded in a nation on higher alert against the possibility of renewed attacks. Vice President Cheney was at an undisclosed location, armed anti-aircraft missiles were deployed around the nation’s capital and military aircraft patrolled the skies.

Church bells tolled throughout Washington at 8.46am (1.46pm Irish time), the moment when the first hijacked airliner struck the World Trade Centre in New York.

Members of Congress decided to gather on the Capitol building’s steps to sing God Bless America as they had done one year ago in a spontaneous demonstration of US resolve.

Bush, members of his Cabinet, congressional leaders, beribboned military officers and a crowd of several thousand gathered outside the Pentagon for a ceremony that was part memorial to the dead and part celebration of the rapidly rebuilt building.

“The terrorists wanted September 11 to be a day when innocents died,” Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in remarks shortly before the president spoke. “Instead it was a day when heroes were born.”

“We will not let those who died fade from our memories,” said Major General Gaylord Gunhus, the Army’s chaplain.

Bush was mournful and defiant by turns.

“Today the nation pays our respects to them,” he said of the 184 people who perished at the Pentagon and nearly 3,000 elsewhere. “Here and in Pennsylvania and in New York, we honour each name and each life.”

At the same time, “we renew our commitment to win the war” that began one year ago, he said.

“What happened to our nation on a September day set in motion the first great struggle of a new century. The enemies who struck is are determined and resourceful,” Bush said. “...But they will be stopped.

Bush also was travelling to Pennsylvania, where a hijacked airliner plane - possibly headed for the Capitol building - crashed into the countryside one year ago.

Then to New York, where the World Trade Centre’s twin towers collapsed after taking separate hits from two hijacker-piloted jetliners.

Americans watched observances on television screens, which often were split with images from Washington and New York, where the names of victims were solemnly read at ground zero hours before the president arrived.

Grim-faced and gripping first lady Laura Bush’s hand, Bush began his day with prayer at the yellow-steepled St John’s Church where presidential aides fled just minutes after the White House was evacuated last Sept. 11.

“September 11 is a day we are never going to forget - are we?” the Rev Luis Leon asked the congregation. “But it did not break us. They have bloodied us but they did not break us.” Bush leaned forward and slowly nodded his head in agreement.

At the Pentagon, the changes forced by last September 11 were boldly on display. Flags draped the building, and in one office window was a taped sign that declared, “Marian, we miss you!”

Bush’s own tribute in southwestern Pennsylvania was to be a silent one - the laying of a wreath, the embrace of those left behind. He has, in his every speech for months, honoured the Flight 93 heroism as “the most vivid and sad symbol” of the kind of American solidarity that was reborn in the attacks.

At Ground Zero, the massive pit where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood, Bush was meeting with the victims’ families before making a televised address tonight from Ellis Island, with the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop.

“A hard day,” he called it.