America commemorates the twentieth anniversary of September 11 on Saturday during ceremonies to pay tribute to some 3,000 dead from the Al-Qaeda attacks, in an atmosphere weighed down by the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan. In two decades, the time of a generation, the deadliest jihadist attacks in history are now anchored in political history and the collective memory of the United States, but the pain of the families of victims and survivors remains extremely lively.
President Joe Biden, weakened by the debacle in Afghanistan, will preside in silence the tribute to the 2,977 dead (including 2,753 in New York) from the impressive Manhattan memorial built at the foot of new skyscrapers, on “Ground Zero”, where once stood the twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC).
Minutes of silence and musical tributes
At 8.46 a.m. (12:46 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, the time when the first plane hacked by five of the 19 jihadists hit the north tower of the WTC, a minute of silence will be observed at the memorial. Five more minutes of silence and musical tributes will follow one another until 12:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. GMT) to mark the tragedies of this fatal morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001: for the collapse of the New York towers, the attack on the Pentagon near Washington and the crash of one of the planes in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Like every September 11, for three hours, the names of nearly 3,000 dead will be read at the New York memorial. Huge vertical beams of light are already rising from the two huge black basins that have replaced the base of the towers. In Times Square, in the heart of Manhattan, the economic heart of the world’s leading power, where America’s victories are traditionally celebrated, a gathering and moments of contemplation are also planned.
“America will never forget September 11”
Every American, victim or witness of September 11, also prepares to pay homage to a loved one who has disappeared. Frank Siller went further. This brother of a Brooklyn firefighter who died at the WTC has “walked 537 miles (864 km between Washington and New York) from the Pentagon in Shanksville to ‘Ground Zero'” and is raising funds to support families of victims. “America has never forgotten Pearl Harbor, it will never forget 9/11,” says Frank Siller.
In fact, researchers point out, the cataclysm of September 11 turned American society and politics upside down and in a generation has become a chapter of history inscribed in the memory of the country. Like Pearl Harbor, the Landing or the Kennedy assassination. This very special commemoration of September 11, Joe Biden, 78, has undoubtedly prepared many times since his victory in November against Donald Trump, whom he accused of having weakened and fractured America.
Joe Biden calls for “unity”
In a video message broadcast Friday evening, Democratic President Joe Biden rightly called for “unity, our greatest strength”. But after eight months in office, he is widely criticized for the debacle of the end of the military intervention in Afghanistan, Washington having been taken aback by the meteoric advance of the Taliban.
In twenty years, the United States has lost 2,500 soldiers and spent more than 2,000 billion dollars in Afghanistan. At the end of August, they abandoned the country to Islamic fundamentalists whom they had driven out of Kabul at the end of 2001, accusing them of harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was finally killed in 2011 in Pakistan.
Generation September 11
And the attack of August 26, claimed by the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group, which killed 13 young American soldiers at the airport in Kabul – in the middle of an evacuation operation – has ulcerated part of the public opinion. These young women and men in uniform were mostly children on September 11, 2001. Their deaths are a reminder that America is experiencing a caesura: between the memory still alive for tens of millions of American adults and a more partial historical awareness. for young people born since the 1990s.
It is “important that they know what happened that day, because there is a whole generation which does not really understand it”, pleads Monica Iken-Murphy, widow of a trader who worked in the south tower of the WTC. “September 11th reminds us that we can never take for granted our peace, our freedom and our way of life,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote in an open letter presenting his “heartfelt condolences” to “everyone. American people ”.