NEW YORK – The United States today marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with solemn ceremonies given added poignancy by the recent chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the return to power of the Taliban.
Heart-wrenching commemorations will unfold at each of the three sites where 19 al-Qaeda hijackers, mostly from Saudi Arabia, crashed packed airliners, striking the cultural, financial and political hearts of the US and changing the world forever.
The memorials come with US troops finally gone from Afghanistan, but national discord – and for President Joe Biden, political peril – is overshadowing any sense of closure.
At New York’s Ground Zero, where two pools of water now stand where the World Trade Centre twin towers used to, relatives will read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in a four-hour service starting 8.30am (1230 GMT).
Six moments of silence will be observed, corresponding with the times the towers were struck and fell, and the moments when the Pentagon was attacked and Flight 93 crashed.
A whole generation has grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.
In the interim, al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been hunted down and killed. A towering new skyscraper has risen over Manhattan, replacing the twin towers. And less than two weeks ago, the last US soldiers flew from Kabul airport, ending the so-called “forever war”.
But, the Taliban, which once sheltered bin Laden, is back ruling Afghanistan, the mighty US military humiliated. In Guantanamo Bay, accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men continue to await trial, nine years after charges were filed.
Even the full story of how the attacks came to happen remains secret. Only last week did Biden order the release over the next six months of classified documents from the FBI investigation.
‘Honour and memorialise’
At Ground Zero, some 2,753 people from all over the world were killed in the initial explosions, jumped to their deaths, or simply vanished in the inferno of the collapsing towers.
At the Pentagon, an airliner tore a fiery hole in the side of the superpower’s military nerve centre, killing 184 people in the plane and on the ground.
And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the third wave of hijackers crashed into a field after passengers fought back, sending United 93 down before reaching its intended target – likely the US Capitol building in Washington.
Biden and his wife Jill will stop at each of these places today to “honour and memorialise the lives lost”, said the White House. – AFP, September 11, 2021
