Americans held nationwide ceremonies on Tuesday to mark the
sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, but many say that the
war in Iraq that made it impossible for a nation to
heal.??
At the White House, President George W. Bush, joined by his wife
and top aides, observed a moment of silence at 8:46 AM local time
(1246 GMT), the exact time when the first plane hijacked by
terrorists hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New
York six years ago.
All dressed in dark suites, America's first couple bowed to
honor the victims as a Marine band played "God Bless America"
behind them.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is hosting a memorial
service at the Pentagon for relatives of the 184 people killed by
the five hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 77.
Another ceremony was being held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
where United Airlines flight 93 crashed after some of the 40
passengers and crew rushed the four men who hijacked that
plane.
In New York, for the first time, much of the ceremony is taking
place away from the World Trade Center site - known as Ground Zero-
because of the construction there.
Most of the ceremony is being held at a nearby park, but
relatives of the 2,749 people killed in New York will be able to
file down a ramp into the World Trade Center site to lay
flowers.
Church bells tolled at 8:46 AM local time to mark the moment
when the first Trade Center tower was hit.
The names of New York victims were being read out as in previous
years but for the first time by the surviving firefighters and
other emergency workers on duty at the time.
Some of those reading out the names were overcome with emotion
as they came to list fallen colleagues.
The ceremony has two pauses to mark the moments when the two
planes crashed into the twin towers, and two more to mark the
moments when the buildings collapsed.
On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed when four
planes were hijacked and flown into New York's World Trade Center,
the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
Weary of the war
This year's anniversary comes as the nation started a round of
fierce debate about the war in Iraq.
Americans have been irrevocably linking the war to 9/11 and many
of them now say that the war made it impossible for a nation to
heal.
The number of US troop casualties of 3,700 in Iraq, according to
the latest government statistics, has now exceeded the nearly 3,000
deaths on Sept. 11, 2001.
A majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- don't think the US
campaign against terrorism is going well and only about half the
public believes the government is doing all it can to prevent
future attacks, according to the latest ABC News poll.
The poll also showed that Americans, by nearly 2-1, disapprove
of Bush's handling of the war, 65 percent to 34 percent. His
broader job approval rating is almost identical.
"Everything we are feeling is because the war is going on," said
Michael Ragsdale, a Columbia University videographer and archivist
who has chronicled the recovery effort since the day after the
attacks.
"The death and violence continues. First in Afghanistan and then
in Iraq," said Ragsdale.
"We're fatigued. Many people tell you in the aftermath they are
so tired of seeing the death and violence. You can feel it in the
struggle to rebuild Ground Zero," she said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2007)
