After seven years, commemorations in US, scepticism abroad

US Features

Sep 11, 2008, 12:52 GMT

New York/Washington - With a moment of silence and the dedication of a Pentagon memorial, the United States on Thursday marks the seventh anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which led the country into two wars. Tim Miner, an American Airlines pilot who was at the Pentagon the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, walks through a field of American flags placed near the Pentagon to memorialize the victims, in Arlington, Virginia, USA on 11 September 2008. U.S. President George W. Bush will dedicate the Pentagon 9/11 memorial later this morning. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

Tim Miner, an American Airlines pilot who was at the Pentagon the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, walks through a field of American flags placed near the Pentagon to memorialize the victims, in Arlington, Virginia, USA on 11 September 2008. U.S. President George W. Bush will dedicate the Pentagon 9/11 memorial later this morning. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGHUS President George W Bush has called for a minute's silence at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), the moment when the first hijacked airliner smashed into the north tower of New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Within minutes, a second plane commandeered by Islamic terrorists ripped into the south tower. By hour's end, a third plane ploughed into the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently after a struggle for control between passengers and hijackers. Within little more than two hours, 2,975 people were dead. Some were crushed and incinerated in the twin infernos. Three hundred New York firefighters and police officers died, trapped as they tried to rescue people from the horror of the collapsing towers. Still other victims worked at the Pentagon or were passengers on the planes. All 19 terrorist suspects died. Credit for the 9/11 attacks was claimed by terrorist network al- Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan. According to an international poll released Wednesday, there is still broad scepticism that it was al-Qaeda. Majorities in only nine of 17 countries said they believed that al-Qaeda was behind the attacks, the Maryland-based WorldPublicOpinion.org reported. A total of 22 per cent believed there was a conspiracy by the US government or Israel. On average, 46 per cent of the 16,000 people who were questioned believed al-Qaeda was really behind the attacks. Steven Kull, director of the polling agency, said it was 'remarkable' that seven years later, there was no international consensus 'given the extraordinary impact the 9/11 attacks have had on world affairs.' He was referring to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which both now have democratically elected governments. The October 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan ousted the militant Islamist Taliban regime, which had protected al-Qaeda, but the battle, now under NATO forces, continues against a stubborn and renewed insurgency. The March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq found less support from a sceptical world and continues without NATO support. On Thursday, the commemoration of the September 11 attacks will include flags flown at half mast on public buildings and private homes around the country. Presidential nominees Democrat Barack Obama, 44, and Republican John McCain, 72, agreed to drop their campaign rhetoric for the day and meet at Columbia University in New York for a memorial service. In New York, families of the victims will start their ceremony of name-reading at Zucotti Park, then walk to nearby Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood, and where they will be allowed to descend a ramp to the lowest level available. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed frustration Monday at delays in building the memorial there, and insisted it be finished by the 10th anniversary in 2011. In Washington, US President George W Bush and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will be on hand for the dedication of the Pentagon memorial - a collection of 184 steel benches, one for each of the dead at the Defence Department headquarters. The 59 benches dedicated to the passengers on board American Airlines Flight 77 are positioned so that visitors must face the sky when reading the individual engraved names. The remaining 125 benches are positioned to turn visitors toward the Pentagon, commemorating the military and civilian workers inside the building when Flight 77 struck.

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SP4: yeah, skepticismSep 11th, 2008 - 14:45:06

...or why it took 30 years to get Carlos Martinez'.

The real reason is that, for the last 40 years, Europe has ignored terror for political reasons, prefering to sacrifice a few citizens to stay out of the debate. America and the rest of the world clearly followed, to some degree. One only has to look to President Clinton and his pardon of Puerto Rican terroists, or his letting Bin Laden go, to realize that is true.

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KevinSep 11th, 2008 - 16:46:20

Why is Bush at the 9-11 trade center? The blundering fool should be on the golf course where he can't screw too much up.

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@sp4Sep 11th, 2008 - 16:57:57

Let's not ignore osama bin laden, and the mission aborted.
After 9/11, the US went to find osama bin laden, and al qaeda
who were by all reports in Afghanistan. When the terrorists fled, apparently, into Pakistan, we dropped the ball, in honor of the 'national soverneighty' of a military dictator in Pakistan.
Seven years later we pretend that it doesn't matter.
After Pearl Harbor, the US went after the attackers who came from Japan.
We did not get confused and attack China or Thailand, labeling them all Asians, and confusing them with the Japanese, our WWII attackers.

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SP4: well ProfessorSep 11th, 2008 - 17:26:16

..we do not really live in the world of WWII anymore, do we.(?)

In fact, look what war has become: civilians, or those dressed as such, attack the legitimate combatant who are then pilloried for defending themselves. The world knows we cannot be beaten in the field, so they take it to the arena of public opinion.

They blow up a building, kill 2800 folks, and then spend years rationalizing it, and we actually have folks who sympathize with them, insinuating we 'make' terrorists with our actions, ignoring the glaring fact that Osama Bin Laden himself came from a very wealthy and secure family.

Bush is about the most deliberate person you can find in politics today and look at the weight he's had to carry because of it. Who would step up more than him?

Obama? Not hardly.

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@sp4Sep 11th, 2008 - 17:54:22

I am not 'rationalizing' anything. I am suggesting that for some reason, your hero Bush, dropped the ball sometime after 9/11, and distracted the country from the mission to destroy the 9/11 terrorists and their training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. You are the one who wants to 'rationalize' and marginalize this fact, and pretend that it doesn't matter. If a democrat president had attacked a nation and population that had nothing to do with 9/11, instead of going after the 9/11 terrorists, and spent billions of dollars on that, instead of pursuing the 9/11 al qaeda terrorists into the countries that harbored them, I don't believe that a partisan like you would be singing a happy song about it.

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Abroad can butt out.Sep 11th, 2008 - 18:48:52

'scepticism[sic] abroad'

Funny, when the editors Monsters and Critics tries to give credence to irrelevant idiots they just demonstrates that they can't spell.

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give it a rest.Sep 11th, 2008 - 18:52:13

'I am not 'rationalizing' anything. '

I thought India was going to take care of Pakistan...

Do you know where bin laden is? Or should we just invade every country until we find his cave?

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@idiotSep 11th, 2008 - 19:29:58

Understanding the US reaction to one of the defining moments of this century, 9/11, and all you can say is 'give it a rest'?
Sorry, but you are really deluded if you believe, or think, that India will take care of the huge problem of the osama bin laden led, al qaeda narco-terrorist enclave existing within Pakistan.

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shaddupSep 11th, 2008 - 19:58:00

So should the USA invade Pakistan? Or would the foreign cry babies who should have no say in our affairs wet themselves yet again?

Yes, give it a rest. 7 years ago some of us watched mothers jump from the 80th floor because they were burning alive. Creeps like you have missed no opportunity to rub salt in the wound.

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SP4Sep 11th, 2008 - 19:58:50

Was Bin Hiden our friend before he was our enemy like Saddam was?

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-Sep 13th, 2008 - 18:05:48

'Was Bin Hiden our friend before he was our enemy like Saddam was?'

No.

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