Obama visits Pentagon memorial to observe 9-11

Within days, he issued a statement about what the nation should do. Beyond the immediate needs to improve security and dismantle “organizations of destruction,” Obama wrote, was the more difficult job of “understanding the sources of such madness.” He wrote of “a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers,” of “embittered children” around the world, of the seeds of discontent sown in poverty, ignorance and despair.

Nuanced musings of an obscure state senator, the statement never even made the big Chicago daily newspapers.  Americans were listening instead to Bush, shouting into a megaphone at Ground Zero. To weary rescue workers and a sorrowing nation, Bush declared: “The world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

Eight years later, Obama has the megaphone. And the way forward in the fight against terror is anything but clear.  Public sentiment toward US involvement in Afghanistan is souring as combat deaths grow and questions persist about flawed Afghan elections. The drawdown of US troops in Iraq is moving forward, but at a slower pace than envisioned by candidate Obama. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks of “a certain war-weariness on the part of the American people.”

Sticky questions persist about what parts of Bush's anti-terror program to keep; what parts to throw away; what parts to investigate.  Obama's goal of shutting the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year is bogged down in case-by-case complexities.

The phrase “war on terror” has fallen out of favor: Obama avoids using it, he says, to keep from offending Muslims.  Keeping Americans safe, the president says, is “the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning; it's the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep at night.”

Bush used to say the same thing.  He also pledged to “rid the world of evil” and framed the worst act of terrorism on American soil with a black-and-white clarity that belied the complex challenges that lay ahead.

Obama, more discriminating in his speech, has struggled to craft a clear message as he faces difficult decisions about how best to protect Americans and amid growing doubts about his ability to do so.  An AP-GfK poll released this week finds the president's approval ratings for his handling of Afghanistan and Iraq slipping, and declining approval, as well, for his efforts to combat terrorism.

On Friday's 9-11 anniversary, Obama visited the Pentagon memorial to those who died there in the 2001 attacks, and meet with loved ones of the dead. He issued a proclamation Thursday honoring those who died and urging Americans to mark the anniversary with acts of community service. He also pledged to “apprehend all those who perpetrated these heinous crimes, seek justice for those who were killed, and defend against all threats to our national security.”

The president's challenge, says former Bush foreign policy adviser Juan Zarate, is to “find a balance where he's clearly marking 9-11 as a key historic moment from which his current policies flow, but also not allowing it to define him,” as the attacks defined Bush's presidency. “The Bush administration was often viewed as too firmly planting its policies in 9-11 and in the war on terror,” said Zarate, now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In the years since 2001, American fears of terrorists have diminished gradually as people have moved on with their lives.  They worry more now about the economy, health care and unemployment, polls show, and they elected a new president with high hopes that he would act decisively on those issues and with underlying expectations that he would keep them safe.

So Obama's challenge is to focus on terror even as he engages in a historic effort to restructure the nation's health care system and works to nurse the economy back to health.

There is spirited debate within the Obama White House over what to do next in Afghanistan, and whether to send in more troops to stop extremists and stabilize Pakistan.

American Muslims say backlash fear builds each 9/11

There is the dread of leaving the house that morning. People might stare, or worse, yell insults.  Prayers are more intense, visits with family longer. Mosques become a refuge.  Eight years after 9/11, many US Muslims still struggle through the anniversary of the attacks. Yes, the sting has lessened. For the younger generation of Muslims, the tragedy can even seem like a distant memory. “Time marches on,” said Souha Azmeh Al-Samkari, a 22-year-old student at the University of Dayton in Ohio.  Yet, many American Muslims say Sept. 11 will never be routine, no matter how many anniversaries have passed.  “I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every year,” said Nancy Rokayak of Charlotte, North Carolina, who covers her hair in public. “I feel on 9/11 others look at me and blame me for the events that took place.” Rokayak, a US-born convert, has four children with her husband, who is from Egypt, and works as an ultrasound technologist. She makes sure she is wearing a red, white and blue flag pin every Sept. 11 and feels safer staying close to home. New York AP