Weary Americans to honour 9/11 dead
2011-09-06 22:14
New York - A weary United States this Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and looks to move on, with ceremonies attended by President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W Bush at the site of the destroyed Twin Towers.
The annual rituals in New York, at the Pentagon, and at the site of Flight 93's crash in Pennsylvania will have an especially deep resonance as the country reflects on a decade of fear at home and war abroad, all triggered by the surprise attacks of September 11 2001 in which nearly 3 000 people died.
At the centre of Sunday's events will be the reading of victims' names at Ground Zero, attended by victims' family members, Obama, Bush, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the governors of New York and New Jersey.
But this is a truly national occasion in a country where, according to a poll last week, 97% of people remember where they were when they heard the news, putting 9/11 on a par with John F Kennedy's assassination.
At Ground Zero, the sombre litany will take place against a backdrop of impressive progress in rebuilding the World Trade Centre, which collapsed in a fiery, toxic heap after being struck by two hijacked airliners.
Opening of 9/11 memorial
Sunday will also see the opening of a national 9/11 memorial, consisting of two huge square fountains dug into the footprints of the old Twin Towers.
Behind the memorial, the centrepiece of a massive new office complex, One World Trade Centre, is steadily rising toward the planned 104 floors that will make it the country's tallest building.
That rebirth of lower Manhattan, where the vast hole at Ground Zero for years symbolised a broader lack of closure, will lend a note of optimism to proceedings.
Americans will pause at the decade mark with some satisfaction too that the mastermind of 9/11, al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan in a dramatic raid by US Navy Seals four months ago.
But while al-Qaeda is severely weakened, New York is recovering, and the attacks are fading into history, the anniversary will also find a nation still reeling from the longer-term impacts of the last decade.
Interfaith concert
The president will take part in an interfaith concert at Washington's National Cathedral featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, country singer Alan Jackson, and R&B soul diva Patti LaBelle.
The 9/11 attacks left 2 977 people dead. The vast majority of those killed, 2 753, were in New York, while 184 people died at the Pentagon and another 40 at Shanksville. Those figures exclude the 19 hijackers.
While a vast new security apparatus within the United States has managed to prevent any major terrorist attack in the US since 9/11, the country is again on alert during the anniversary.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was "no specific" threat but "we remain at a heightened state of vigilance".
A poll by Pew last week found general satisfaction with US internal security, exposed as woefully inadequate prior to 9/11, but 35% of people questioned said luck was the reason America had so far been spared another attack.
