Bush: ‘The War Is Not Over’

President Bush led the nation on Monday in marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, making a solemn journey to the three sites where hijacked planes crashed in the terror strikes and declaring, in an evening address, that America’s safety “depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.”

Until speaking to the nation from the Oval Office, the president commemorated the attacks quietly, attending ceremonies at three symbolic sites: a New York City firehouse, a grassy field in rural Pennsylvania and the mended Pentagon.

But with eight weeks until congressional elections in which national security is a dominant issue, Bush and other political leaders continued to battle over whether the nation had learned the proper lessons from the Sept. 11 attacks and was prepared to prevent new ones.

Bush’s 16-minute speech reflected on the nearly 3,000 lives lost on Sept. 11 but also used dire warnings to caution that terrorists still intend to harm the country, and that Iraq remains the central front in stopping them. He repeated the themes he has laid out in a recent string of speeches designed to shore up flagging public support for the Iraq war and for his leadership on national security, which has left Republicans nervous about their prospects in the November elections.

“Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone,” Bush said. “They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.”

Speaking more broadly of the fight against terrorists who aim to build a “radical Islamic empire,” Bush said: “America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I. But the war is not over -- and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious.”

“This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations,” he said. “In truth, it is a struggle for civilization. We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations.”

Democrats said they were surprised by the muscular tone of the speech, after a day of carefully choreographed remembrances. They accused the president of trying to turn a solemn occasion to partisan advantage.

“This should have been an occasion to bring everyone together and focus on the tragedy.... You do not commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 by politicizing it,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Bush “should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning ... to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had ‘nothing’ to do with 9/11.”

“The president’s misuse of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attack shows he’ll go to any lengths to divert attention from his failures in Iraq -- failures that have diverted focus from the war on terrorism,” said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

The speech capped a day in which the president fulfilled a ceremonial role in leading the nation in mourning and remembrance. During his visits to New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, Bush spoke not a word in public, but his face -- tight-lipped with eyes downcast -- suggested the welling of emotions that marked the day.

In ceremonies at the Pentagon, Bush stood at the point of impact and presented a lily wreath. He and First Lady Laura Bush, both dressed in black, appeared drawn as they shook hands and hugged the families of those who died there. At one point, the president appeared to wipe away tears.

In a similar fashion, other political leaders marked the day with solemnity and ceremony, even while pressing the political battle over which party could best lead the nation in a post-Sept. 11 world.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in a morning speech at the Pentagon, took a swipe at Democrats calling for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. “We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history’s latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power,” Cheney said, quoting a 2002 speech by the president.

The word “appeasement” has carried an additional political charge in recent weeks, after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld compared critics of the Iraq war with politicians who sought to appease Hitler.

During a ceremony at dusk outside the Capitol, where lawmakers from both parties marked the anniversary, Pelosi seemed to insert a partisan note, saying that “right now we are not fully safe and we are not fully healed.”

Al Qaeda, the perpetrator of the Sept. 11 attacks, also sought to put its stamp on the day. The terrorist group’s No. 2 leader warned in a videotape that it would strike Persian Gulf nations and Israel to damage the U.S. economy.

The political skirmishing echoed a debate of increasing intensity in Washington as the two major political parties position themselves for the November elections.

Democrats argue that the Iraq war has distracted the nation from the unfinished work of tracking down Al Qaeda leaders and securing ports, rail systems and nuclear materials. Bush and the Republican Party have been trying to rebuild support for the Iraq war and burnish their credentials as those best suited to protect the nation from future attacks.

Throughout the day from New York to Washington and across the country, bells tolled, wreaths were laid and prayers were spoken. In one moving tribute, in New York, Bush honored the memory of scores of firefighters. He stood beside the battered door of a truck that belonged to Ladder Co. 18, dented and covered with grime from the billowing fallout of the collapsed World Trade Center.

Rumsfeld was visibly moved at a Pentagon memorial, where he stood in a steady mist.

“I remember working -- working our way through that long, tragic day,” he said haltingly, choking back emotion.

Rumsfeld invoked images of bipartisanship, recalling how Democrats and Republicans stood together at the Capitol after the attacks and sang “God Bless America.” He said making “every effort to stay united as a country” would be a good way to pay tribute to Sept. 11 victims.

Some in Washington took the occasion to advance a possible run for president. In a speech to the mostly conservative American Enterprise Institute, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and potential candidate in 2008, criticized the administration.

“We are not where we wanted to be nor where we need to be,” Gingrich said. “We have not captured Bin Laden. We have not defeated the Taliban.... We have not stopped the recruitment of young fanatics into terrorism.”

Even those with less partisan interest in the debate seized the moment to advance an agenda. Republican Thomas H. Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton -- chairman and vice chairman of the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks and the government’s response -- said bureaucracy had blocked implementation of many of the panel’s recommendations to improve security and intelligence-gathering.

Former President Clinton, blamed in an ABC docudrama for failing to pay sufficient attention to looming Al Qaeda threats, addressed a Jewish charitable organization at a Washington hotel. Without mentioning Bush or the Republican Party, Clinton urged renewed efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, where the Taliban has recently gained strength.

“We need more troops,” he said, noting there were almost seven times as many U.S. soldiers in Iraq as in Afghanistan. “We can’t practice hit-and-run democracy.”

Clinton also sounded a familiar Democratic theme that the nation is not as safe as it could be, faulting the administration for failing to improve inspections of ship and plane cargo, as well as of chemical and nuclear plants.

“They say it’s a matter of costs, but it can’t be,” Clinton said. Hailing a new method for inspecting cargo electronically, he said the technology would cost $840 million a year, “and we’ve already spent over $300 billion on the war in Iraq.”

Polls show that 95% of Americans surveyed remember exactly where they were when they learned of the attacks. For most of them, Monday was a day of remembering what few have forgotten, this time laced with a political message.

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faye.fiore@latimes.com

james.gerstenzang@ latimes.com

Times staff writers Johanna Neuman, Julian Barnes and Moises Mendoza contributed to this report.