SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
Twenty years have passed since the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda in the United States, but the fallout remains painful for Americans. – SETH MCALLISTER
At the 9/11 memorial in New York, relatives wiped away tears, their voices breaking as they read out the names of the almost 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks, the deadliest in history.
“We love you and we miss you,” they said as somber violin music played at the official ceremony, attended by President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
US President Joe Biden (R), with former President Barack Obama (L), speaks with former First Lady Michelle Obama as they attend the ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York, on September 11, 2021. – Jim WATSON
This file photo taken on September 11, 2001, shows Edward Fine covering his mouth as he walks through dust and debris following the collapse of one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. – STAN HONDA
At 9:03 am, attendees stood still again to mark the moment the South Tower was struck. At 9:37 am, it was the Pentagon, where the hijacked airliner killed 184 people in the plane and on the ground.
New York police and firefighters hold a US flag as a band plays the US National Anthem at the National 9/11 Memorial during a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York, on September 11, 2021. – Ed JONES
The New York skyline with the ‘Tribute in Light’ installation commemorating the 9/11 attacks on their 20th anniversary. – Ed JONES
“It feels like it was yesterday. Every year (that) we get further away it becomes more important to remember,” said Joanne Pocher-Dzama, whose brother died at the World Trade Center.
– Bush’s fear –
Bruce Springsteen performed “I’ll See You in My Dreams” and smaller ceremonies across New York remembered the 343 firefighters who lost their lives saving others. After nightfall, powerful twin light beams symbolizing the Twin Towers were projected into the sky to commemorate the dead.
A man walks with the name of a loved one lost in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center outside the 9/11 Museum and Memorial in New York. – Ed JONES
“So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear, and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together,” he added.
World leaders sent messages of solidarity, saying the attackers had failed to destroy Western values.
In a video posted on the eve of the anniversary, Biden urged Americans to come together.
“Are we going to, in the next four, five, six, ten years, demonstrate that democracies can work, or not?” he asked Saturday in Shanksville.
But former president Donald Trump shattered the sentiment, releasing a video slamming the “inept administration” of Biden for its “incompetence” over the Afghan withdrawal, and later telling New York police officers that the US had been “embarrassed.”
The memorials come less than two weeks since the last soldiers left Kabul, ending the so-called “forever war.”
But national discord over the chaotic exit, including the deaths of 13 US troops in a suicide bomb and the return to power of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden’s protectors the Taliban, overshadowed what was supposed to be a pivotal day in Biden’s nearly eight-month-old presidency.
Again he defended the withdrawal, saying the US could not “invade” every country where Al-Qaeda is present, before he concluded his tour of all three attack sites at the Pentagon.
In the last 20 years, bin Laden has been killed and a new skyscraper dubbed the “Freedom Tower” has risen over Manhattan, replacing the Twin Towers.
But the consequences of 9/11 rumble on.
In Guantanamo Bay, accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men continue to await trial, nine years after charges were filed.
And only last week Biden ordered the release of classified documents from the FBI investigation over the next six months.
For many Americans 9/11 remains about one thing: loss.
“So many families were disrupted. And we just need to let them know that all those people are not forgotten,” said Mark Papadimitriou, paying his respects in Times Square.
