United States President, Joe Biden, has urged unity among Americans as his country remembers the victims of the September 11, terror attacks n American soil.
Biden, in a short video posted on the eve of the 20th anniversary of an episode that has been globally documented as 9/11 attacks, told Americans to show unity, which, according to him, “is our greatest strength.”.
He said: “To me, that’s the central lesson of September 11th. It’s that at our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength,” Biden says in a six- minute message from the White House.
Reports say Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will Saturday (today) visit the three locations of the September 11, 2001 attacks: New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
But Biden, much criticised for his management of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, is not expected to speak in public during the ceremonies.
“Unity doesn’t mean we have to believe the same thing, but we must have a fundamental respect and faith in each other and in this nation,” Biden said in his video remarks.
“No matter how much time has passed, these commemorations bring everything painfully back as if you just got the news a few seconds ago,” the president said.
He acknowledged the “darker forces of human nature – fear and anger, resentment and violence against Muslim Americans” which followed the attacks, but said that unity had remained the US’ “greatest strength”.
The attacks, which were planned by al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, saw four US passenger jets seized by suicide attackers – two of which were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, just outside the US capital, Washington DC, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.