Gwen Graham: “Yesterday, March 11, 2004, was a solemn day. Two and a half years ago to the day, 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners…”

“Yesterday, March 11, 2004, was a solemn day. Two and a half years ago to the day, 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in rural Pennsylvania. It is fitting that we pause today to remember the nearly 3,000 innocent people who lost their lives that day. It is also fitting that we take a moment to remember the responsibilities that we undertook in the aftermath of those horrible events. We in public office undertook a particularly important obligation, as we vowed to take action to prevent terrorist attacks of that magnitude from happening again. In his speech delivered before a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, President Bush put it this way: 'Americans are asking, How will we fight and win this war? We will direct every resource at our command--every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war--to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network. Unfortunately, we have not met that commitment.'”