Memories still fresh as US marks 20 yrs since 9/11
NEW YORK: Americans mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on Saturday with troops finally gone from Afghanistan, but national discord - and for President Joe Biden, political peril - are overshadowing any sense of closure.
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 sky scraper 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”.
Yet 9/11 never fully went away. The Taliban who once sheltered Bin Laden are back ruling Afghanistan. The mighty US military has been 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 attack came to happen remains secret. Only last week did Biden order the release of classified documents from the FBI investigation over the next six months.
Monica Iken-Murphy, who lost her 37-year-old husband Michael Iken in the World Trade Center, says this will be a “heightened” anniversary for many Americans.
Ground Zero in New York was where the majority of the approximately 3,000 fatalities, including 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.
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, a short flight further on.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will stop at each of these places on Saturday to “honour and memorialise the lives lost”, the White House said.
Biden planned for this to be a pivotal day in his nearly eightmonth-old presidency.
Taking over from Donald Trump in January, with the country still reeling from a Trump mob’s assault on the US Capitol, he promised Americans unity; exiting Afghanistan against the background of the 9/11 anniversary was going to be a big part of that.
Where Trump had promised the Taliban a deadline of May 1 for US troops to leave, Biden changed the pull-out date to September 11 itself. Even if he backtracked to a less politically sensitive cut-off of August 31, he clearly meant to own both the withdrawal and the anniversary.
However, instead of presiding over a moment of unity, the US president will traverse a country angry about the chaotic Kabul evacuation and stung by the broader realisation of failure and defeat.