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New York: America marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday with solemn ceremonies given added poignancy by the recent chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and 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 planet forever.
The memorials accompany US troops finally gone from Afghanistan, but national discord — and for President Joe Biden, political peril — are overshadowing any sense of closure.
In a video posted on the eve of the anniversary, Biden urged Americans to point out unity, “our greatest strength.”
“To me, that is the central lesson of September 11th. It’s that at our most vulnerable, within the push and pull of all that creates us human, within the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength,” Biden said during a six- minute message from the White House.
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At New York’s Ground Zero, where two pools of water now stand where the dual Towers wont to , relatives will read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed, during a four-hour-long service starting at 8:30 am (1230 GMT).
Six moments of silence are going to be observed, corresponding with the days the 2 World Trade Center towers were struck, and fell, and therefore the moments the Pentagon was attacked and Flight 93 crashed.
Monica Iken-Murphy, who lost her 37-year-old husband Michael Iken within the World Trade Center, says this may be a “heightened” anniversary for several Americans.
But for her, as for several other survivors, the pain has never wavered.
“I desire it just happened,” she told AFP.
A whole generation has grown up since the morning of 9/11 , 2001.
In the interim, Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been hunted down and killed. A towering new sky scraper has risen over Manhattan, replacing the dual Towers. and fewer than fortnight ago, the last US soldiers flew from Kabul airport, ending the so-called “forever war.”
But the Taliban who once sheltered bin Laden are back ruling Afghanistan, the mighty US military humiliated. In Guantanamo Bay, accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 other men still await trial, nine years after charges were filed.
Even the complete story of how the attack came to happen remains secret. Only last week did Biden order the discharge of classified documents from the FBI investigation over subsequent six months.
– ‘Honor and memorialize’ –
At Ground Zero, 2,753 people, from everywhere the planet , were killed within the initial explosions, jumped to their deaths, or just vanished within the inferno of the collapsing towers.
At the Pentagon, an airliner tore a fiery hole within the side of the superpower’s military nerve center, killing 184 people within the plane and on the bottom .
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 in Washington.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will stop at each of those places on Saturday to “honor and memorialize the lives lost,” the White House said.
In his video address Friday night, Biden urged Americans to return together as they reflect on the tragedy.
“Unity doesn’t suggest we’ve to believe an equivalent thing, but we must have a fundamental respect and faith in one another and during this nation,” Biden said.
The president had planned for this to be a pivotal day in his nearly eight-month-old presidency.
However, rather than presiding over a flash of unity, Biden will traverse a rustic angry about the messy Kabul evacuation, including 13 US soldiers killed by a terrorist , and stung by the broader realization of failure and defeat.
For the relatives of victims, the anniversary, as always, is about keeping the memory of their loved ones alive.
“It’s like Pearl Harbor ,” said Frank Siller, whose firefighter brother Stephen died at the planet Trade Center.
“People who weren’t alive do not have an equivalent feeling about it as those that were alive. But America has never forgotten about Pearl Harbour and America will always remember about 9/11.”
