20th Anniversary of 9/11
By Antony J. Blinken*
On the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, we honor the nearly 3,000 men, women, and children we lost in New York City, Arlington, and Shanksville on that horrific day. Every one of those individuals was someone’s child, someone’s friend. And the loss of every single one sent ripples radiating outward to families, communities, and entire nations. For their loved ones, the pain from the loss began on 9/11; they’ve felt it every day since. Some members of our community lost family and friends that day; our hearts go out to all of you.
Every one of those losses sent ripples that radiated outward. The stories of those who died were told around the world – restaurant workers on breakfast shifts, kids flying to Disneyland, firefighters, and police officers who, as we all know, ran into the (World Trade Centre) building after the planes hit. People from more than 90 countries lost their lives that day – every one of them someone’s child, someone’s parents, someone’s sibling, someone’s friend.
For those who were working at the State Department, the memories are just as vivid. Some of them were in the building that day. They evacuated and saw the smoke rising from the Pentagon. For a while, people thought that there could be a car bomb nearby, and DS agents made sure that everyone got out.
They showed up for work the next morning, as we heard, not yet fully knowing what had happened or what would be required of them in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, but ready to do whatever their country asked of them.
For so many Americans – regardless of whether we lost someone we knew or where we were on 9/11 – the attack felt personal. It still does.
Around the world, we saw people come forward to show their extraordinary solidarity and empathy. Around the world, people congregated outside American embassies and consulates to pray, sing, and cry. They left handwritten notes, flowers, candles, drawings, and mementos.
As we saw in the aftermath of the attacks, our allies’ and partners’ commitment to us, and ours to them, is a sacred bond that goes much deeper than relationships between governments. It’s a bond our peoples have built over many generations.
Outside our embassy in Sydney, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service left a helmet that their firefighters had signed for American first responders. And it read: “To all stations: Come home safe.”
In Ethiopia, so many people left flowers at the base of the embassy’s flagpole that that pile of flowers rose a third of the way up the flagpole.
Amid the hundreds of letters and signs left outside Embassy Berlin was a handwritten note that read: “Kennedy said, ‘I am a Berliner.’ We say, ‘We are Americans.’”
As we saw that day, our allies’ and partners’ commitment to us, and ours to them, is a sacred bond.
As much as any other event in our lifetimes, 9/11 shaped the trajectory of our nation and how we engage in the world. It showed the risks that so many are willing to take to save the lives of complete strangers. So today, we remember all that, and more.
9/11 was, to understate, one of the darkest days in our history – but out of it also came these demonstrations of profound humanity, compassion, strength, and courage. Above all, it showed our remarkable resilience. It showed our capacity to defend the pluralism that has long been one of our country’s greatest strengths, including by embracing our Muslim American brothers and sisters.
It motivated an entire generation to pursue lives of service. Some became journalists, lawyers, or human rights defenders. Others volunteered for the military, and hundreds of thousands went on to serve in Afghanistan. 2,641 service members gave their lives in that conflict, including 13 men and women who were killed in a terrorist attack a few weeks ago as we brought that war to an end. More than 20,000 of those service members were injured, and many more carry invisible wounds from that time. We’re humbled by their sacrifices.
September 11th also inspired a generation of people to join the Foreign Service – people who joined our ranks knowing how hard the work would be, how much we were up against, and how vital it was that they succeed. They threw themselves into the challenge with total commitment. Many of them still serve.
Cherished members of that community gave their lives to this effort, including our colleagues killed in the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11th, 2012.
Looking around this department today, we can see how the attacks changed us and changed our diplomacy. Thousands of diplomats served in Afghanistan and Iraq – and elsewhere in support of the war against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Thousands more served in new bureaus and roles that didn’t exist before the attacks, like counterterrorism, conflict and stabilization. Virtually every part of the department was mobilized in some way to play a role in preventing another 9/11 – critical work that many of us continue to this day. Cherished members of our Foreign Service gave their lives to these efforts. Today, we honor them as well.
Part of our job, part of our responsibility as diplomats is to perpetually reflect on how we engage with the rest of the world and to ask some very basic questions: Are we making our nation safer, more secure? Are we advancing our interests? Are we living up to our values? Are we focusing too much on some threats, and not enough on others? Are we missing opportunities?
We were asking those questions then. We have a responsibility to continue asking them now – to more effectively tackle the challenges that we face today, to try and see around the corner to the crises and challenges of tomorrow, to make sure we’re doing all we can to deliver for our fellow citizens.
On this day of all days, we recommit ourselves to that ongoing effort, and remember the awesome opportunity and responsibility that comes with representing America in the world.
*Antony J.Blinken is the Secretary of State, United States of America. We reproduce the edited version of his statements made on September 10 and 11, 2021 to mark the 20th Anniversary of the terror attacks in the USA. – Editor
