From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

On the anniversary of September 11th, Iraq, and the War on Terror.

Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

the daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

Six years ago, almost 3,000 Americans died in attacks orchestrated by al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.

Today, Washington is preoccupied by the war in Iraq. General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are getting tougher questions from senators than they did yesterday from

members of Congress. On To the Point, we'll update the action on Capitol Hill, including criticism

from Republicans as well as Democrats. Then we'll look at the global war on terror so tragically

dramatized six years ago. Is it really global? Is it a war? What does Iraq have to do with it? First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again. Well, and I'll only back with To the Point. All over the country, Americans are mourning those who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001. On To the Point, we'll talk with the top counterterrorism official who was in the White House that day. We'll hear what he and others have to say about subsequent progress in what's come to be called the Global war on terror. First is news update. General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have taken

their messages from the House to the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are giving them a harder

time. Here's part of an exchange between the General and Foreign Relations Committee Chair

Joseph Biden, a Democratic candidate for president.

If, in fact, the circumstances of the ground are exactly what they are today in March of next year,

will you recommend the continuation of somewhere between 130 and 160,000 American troops being shot at, killed, and maimed every day there?

Mr. Chairman, it's a pretty big hypothetical.

I don't think it's hypothetical.

If they're the same.

I would be very hard-pressed to recommend that at that point.

I would pray you'd be wise enough not to recommend it.

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