REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - For President Barack Obama, the prospect of more US military action in the Middle East hung over his observance Wednesday of the Sept. 11 attacks that occurred a dozen years ago.

While Obama made no direct mention of the crisis in Syria, he vowed to "defend our nation" against the threats that endure, even though they may be different than the ones facing the country during the 2001 attacks.

"Let us have the wisdom to know that while force is sometimes necessary, force alone cannot build the world we seek," Obama said during a ceremony at the Pentagon.

The president spoke the morning after an address to the nation where he defended a possible military strike on Syria in retaliation for a deadly chemical weapons attack. But he expressed some hope that a diplomatic solution might emerge that would keep the US from having to launch a strike.

Among those gathered at the Pentagon Wednesday where family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Many wore red, white, and blue striped ribbons and some cried as the president spoke.

"Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been," Obama said.

The president also paid tribute to the four Americans killed one year ago in an attack on a US compound in Benghazi, Libya, asking the country to pray for those who "serve in dangerous posts" even after more than a decade of war.

Obama opened the day with a somber remembrance on the South Lawn of the White House.

The site was pristine, the weather basically the same as on that fateful day in 2001. But it was the searing memory of death and destruction that brought him to White House grounds for a moment of silence and reflection a dozen years after terrorists emblazoned this date indelibly in people's minds, hearts and calendars as "9/11."

Along with first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden, the president walked out of the White House to the lawn at 8:46 a.m., EDT — the moment on Sept. 11, 2001, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center tower in New York. Obama and the others assembled there bowed their heads to observe a moment of silence, and then listened as a bugler played "Taps."

The president also planned to mark the anniversary by participating in a volunteer project Wednesday afternoon.

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