SIDEBAR: At Pentagon event, a vow to destroy al-Qaeda

By Pat Reber Sep 11, 2011, 16:24 GMT

Washington - US Vice President Joe Biden declared Sunday that the fight against al-Qaeda will continue until the terrorist network al-Qaeda is completely destroyed, the strongest words yet spoken in a day of commemoration.

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed by the third hijacked airplane, Biden also noted that the attacks that day were a 'declaration of war' that inspired an outpouring of resolve by a new generation of military volunteers.

'Al-Qaeda and (Osama) bin Laden never imagined that the 3,000 people who lost their lives that day would inspire 3 million to put on the uniform and harden the resolve of 300 million people,' Biden said. The last number referred to the US population.

Obama was to address the nation later Sunday.

As Biden and Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta spoke at the Pentagon, 184 members of the military stood solemn and still, each at a bench that marks a victim in the Pentagon memorial, opened in 2008.

As the ceremony concluded, the soldiers, airmen and sailors laid the flower wreaths they had been holding, one by one, on each bench, then made a sharp military turn and walked away.

'We will not stop until al-Qaeda is not only disrupted but completely dismantled and ultimately destroyed,' Biden vowed.

Obama was to visit the Pentagon later in the day, after also stopping in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth plane crashed after a struggle with passengers who prevented it from doing more damage in the US capital.

Biden compared the outpouring of volunteers to the US military to that which followed the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, adding that al-Qaeda 'never imagined the sleeping giant that they would awaken.'

Panetta noted that more than 6,200 US military members have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan, launched to wipe out the Talilban-base for al-Qaeda, and in Iraq, launched by Bush in the mistaken conviction that it harboured weapons of mass destruction.

Another 40,000 US military members have been injured, many of them with wounds so severe they will need care for the rest of their lives, Biden said.

A choir sung the haunting 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' and 'Amazing Grace' as the ceremonies began at 9:37 am (1337 GMT), the time that American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, killing all 125 passengers and crew on board.

Another 59 people - military and civilians - who were working in the Pentagon that sunny day were also killed.

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