Kamala Harris: “We must accept the challenge of looking back, of remembering” | Biden did not speak at the events for the 20 years of the attacks

by time news

The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, asked this Saturday look to the future and strengthen America’s alliances, during a speech on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, at the ceremony in tribute to the victims.

“On this twentieth anniversary, on this solemn day of remembrance, we must accept the challenge of looking back, of remembering. For the sake of our children. For the sake of their children. And for that, we must also look forward, towards the future, “Harris said during a speech in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The Vice President attended, along with former President George W. Bush (2001-2009), the memorial ceremony for the 40 victims of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a field in that Pennsylvania town after 10 a.m. on September 11.

According to the official version, the plane’s passengers intervened to prevent the plane from serving another objective in Washington, after learning that the terrorists had hijacked three other planes that crashed into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon building in Arlington. (Virginia).

“They fought for their own lives, and to save the lives of countless others in our nation’s capital. And today, I hope and pray that we continue to honor their bravery (…). Strengthening our common ties (within the country) and strengthening our global alliances, “stressed Harris.

In the days that followed 9/11, the country recalled “that unity is possible in the United States,” and even that it is “an imperative,” he said. “It is essential to our shared prosperity, our national security and our role in the world. And by speaking of unity I do not mean uniformity,” he added.

Harris thus underlined the same message that President Joe Biden sent this Friday, who affirmed that unity is the “greatest strength” of the country, at a time of latent political tensions in the United States after the mandate of Donald Trump.

Although Biden attends the commemoration ceremonies in the three places where the attacks took place two decades ago this Saturday, he will not comment in those acts and preferred to express himself in a speech recorded on video and posted on his official Twitter account on Friday.

In his Pennsylvania speech, Harris acknowledged that the 9/11 rales also demonstrated “how fear can be used to sow division” in the country, as demonstrated by discrimination against “Muslim or Sikh Americans because of their appearance or how they expressed your faith”.

The vice president and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were scheduled to later attend a ceremony honoring the victims of the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77, which killed 184 people by hitting the western facade of that building, does today 20 years.

Biden’s word

The president called the country’s inhabitants to unity, “our greatest strength,” in a video message broadcast on Friday, on the eve of the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“For me it is the main lesson of September 11th. At the moment of greatest vulnerability, (…) unity is our greatest strength,” declared the US president in his six-minute message recorded at the White House.

Biden and his wife Jill visited the three emblematic places of the attacks of September 11 on Saturday: New York, the Pentagon near Washington and the place in Pennsylvania where a plane hijacked by jihadists crashed 20 years ago. Criticized for his handling of the Afghan crisis, he chose not to speak at the ceremonies.

“Unity does not mean that we all have to believe in the same thing, but it is essential that we respect each other and have faith in each other,” Biden said in his message to a deeply divided country.

Trump Reviews

For his part, former President Donald Trump took advantage of the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the attacks to criticize this Saturday in a video the “inept administration” of Joe Biden for its “incompetence” in the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“This is a very sad day,” said the former president, adding that 9/11 “represents a great pain for the country.”

“It is also a sad moment because of the way our war against those who did so much damage to our country ended last week,” he continued in remarks reproduced by the AFP news agency.

Trump thus referred to the end of the US war in Afghanistan, launched after the attacks by the extremist organization Al Qaeda against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. This group, led by Osama Bin Laden, had taken refuge in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and the US invasion toppled the Islamist regime in an attempt to find the group’s leaders. But the Taliban soon launched an offensive and, after two decades of fighting and the announcement of the departure of international troops, they returned to power last month.

“The leader of our country was made to look like a fool and that can never be allowed,” said Trump, blaming “poor planning, incredible weakness and leaders who really didn’t understand what was happening.”

The tycoon also lamented the death of 13 US soldiers in a bomb blast in Kabul last month during the evacuation from Afghanistan, and the billions of dollars in US military equipment left behind and confiscated by the Taliban “without being will fire a single shot. “

“Joe Biden and his inept administration surrendered in defeat,” Trump continued. “We will fight to recover from the shame that this incompetence has caused,” concluded the Republican, who despite his defeat in last year’s elections still has aspirations for a new presidential term.

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