September 17, 2008 John Ashcroft speaks to students at Holy Cross Play video

(Danica Pecirep, NECN: Worcester) - It’s been seven years since 9/11 and the violence against America continues. Wednesday four coalition troops were killed in Afghanistan and the top American general there says more troops are needed to win the fight.

In Worcester former US Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke to students at the College of the Holy Cross about Americas efforts to secure its freedom since 9/11.

The threat is always there- it would be naive to say we're through the woods in any regard.

Senior Steve Anevski co-chaired the committee that invited Ashcroft to speak at the school. He says the country must stay on alert.

Like Mr. Ashcroft said you have to constantly stay vigilant and the worst thing we could do now is to let our guard down and have something like that happen again.

I think you need to be proactive which is a big part of general Ashcroft’s speech- having spent my summers in NY in Manhattan- you constantly go by the WTCte and it hits you really hard.

Ashcroft's visit comes on a same day that the US embassy in Yemen was attacked. 16 people were killed. The state department believes there's a link to Al Qaeda. President bush said the attack reminds us that the war on terror is not over.

This attack is a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideal objectives.

At Holy Cross Brennan says America still faces the risk of another attack.

I

think the country is still in a precarious situation- honestly we have an election year and that puts things in perspective- but in terms of national security we need to continue being preventative so nothing like Sept. 11th happens again.