Cheney calls terror struggle 'lengthy' but 'not endless'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 Kyodo

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday the United States ''will prevail'' in the long war on terrorism, as the nation marked the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Defense Department.

''This struggle is fierce, and it will be lengthy, but it is not endless,'' Cheney said at a ceremony commemorating the attack on the Pentagon.

''This great nation will prevail,'' he said.

Cheney was one of several top U.S. officials to speak Monday at events marking the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Earlier in the day, President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, participated in moments of silence at Ground Zero and met with first responders in New York before traveling to events in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,and the Pentagon, near Washington.

Bush was due to deliver a nationally elevised address on the occasion from the White House on Monday evening.

Cheney said that since the attacks of Sept. 11, ''we have learned that oceans do not protect us, and threats that gather thousands of miles away can now find us here at home.''

Speaking at the same ceremony, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that while terrorists are in many ways ''failing'' -- citing U.S.-led efforts to cut off support in Iraq and Afghanistan -- continued commitment is needed to ''fight the extremists wherever they are.''

''They try every day to convince us to doubt our prospects, to distrust one another and to believe that the battle against them cannot be won or is not worth the costs,'' Rumsfeld said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at an event honoring foreign nationals killed in the attacks, said the events of Sept. 11 were an assault on ''universal ideals of peace and liberty and human rights.''

Stressing the global scope of the war on terror, Rice said the international community ''must unite together and we must fight together.''

The attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people when four hijacked airliners slammed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania, prompted immediate worldwide condemnation and expressions of solidarity with the United States.

The five years since, however, have seen much of that international support eroded over such controversial issues as the U.S-led invasion of Iraq and the use of secret prisons overseas to detain terror suspects.

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