Americans reflect on 20th anniversary of Sept 11

NEW YORK, Sept 11, (Reuters) - Twenty years after hijacked airliners smashed into New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, Americans will honour the nearly 3,000 lives lost on Sept 11, 2001, and reflect on how the attacks have shaped the country's view of the world and itself.

The centerpiece of Saturday's events was a visit by US President Joe Biden to the three sites associated with the attacks: Ground zero in lower Manhattan; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers tried to regain control of the hijacked plane.

The remembrances have become an annual tradition, but Saturday took on special significance, coming 20 years after the morning that many view as a turning point in American history, a day that gave Americans a sense of vulnerability that has deeply influenced the country's political life since then.

In a painful reminder of those changes, only weeks ago US and allied forces completed a chaotic withdrawal from the war the United States star ted in Afghanistan in retaliation for the attacks – which became the longest war in US history. And the Covid19 pandemic, which so far has claimed more than 655,000 lives in the United States, continues.

Clifford Chanin, executive vice president at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum built at the site of the World Trade Center attack, said the two-decade milestone serves as a “moment of high emotion” for the country, a time to consider “where we've been and where we are headed.” “Of course, we are in the middle of another unimaginable event right now with the pandemic, but if 9/ 11 brings us anything in terms of what happened here and at the other attack sites, it is a message of resilience.”

In New York City, the ceremony at the Sept 11 Memorial began with a moment of silence at 8: 46 am EDT ( 1246 GMT), the exact time when the first plane flew into one of the World Trade Center's twin towers. After that, family members recited the names of 2,977 victims, an annual ritual that lasts four hours.

The 20-year milestone arrived as political leaders and educators fret over the thinning collective memory of that day. Some 75 million Americans - equal to nearly a quarter of the US population - have been born since Sept 11, 2001.

For some, the tumultuous events in Afghanistan have compounded the psychological toll of the day, raising questions about whether the US military's mission there was in vain.