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KAI RYSSDAL: Same room, same desk. Five years on, quite a different speech. President Bush spoke to the country tonight about the attacks of September 11th and the wars that have started since. Wars with a cost of something near half a trillion dollars so far.

PRESIDENT BUSH: America did not ask for this war and every American wishes it were over. So do I. But the war’s not over, and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious.

Rememberances of that day started Sunday, really, when the President went to Ground Zero. He spent today in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

Al Qaeda’s not forgotten the anniversary, either. In a video released today Osama bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri took aim at the heart of the U.S. economy.

After predicting American failures in Iraq and in Afghanistan, Al Zawahiri said the West really ought to be worried about the Persian Gulf and all the oil that’s there. He all but promised attacks in the region.

“Economic disaster” is just one way to translate the particular Arabic phrase he used.