Biden to honour 9/11 victims as shadow of Afghan war looms

President Joe Biden will mark the 21st anniversary of the September 11 attacks at the Pentagon

President of the United States Joe Biden is set to mark the 21st anniversary of the September 11 attacks at the Pentagon, a year after he ended the long and costly war in Afghanistan that the U.S. and allies launched in response to the terror attacks.

In ending the Afghanistan war, the Democratic president followed through on a campaign pledge to bring home U.S. troops from the country’s longest conflict. But the war concluded chaotically in August 2021, when the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed in the face of a countrywide Taliban advance that returned the fundamentalist group to power. A bombing claimed by an Afghanistan-based extremist group killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops at Kabul’s airport, where thousands of desperate Afghans gathered in hopes of escape before the final U.S. cargo planes departed over the Hindu Kush.

“Afghanistan has become a global pariah. Its economy has shrunk by nearly a third. Half of its population is now suffering critical levels of food insecurity.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

White House National Security Council spokesman said Mr. Biden in his remarks on Sunday will recognise the impact the 2001 attacks had on the U.S. and the world and honour the nearly 3,000 people killed that day when al-Qaida hijackers took control of commercial planes and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

“I think you’ll hear him talk about how America will stay vigilant to the threat but also look to future threats and challenges and be able to learn to meet those threats and challenges,” the spokesperson said.

Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan late last month in a low-key fashion. He issued a statement in honour of the 13 U.S. troops killed in the bombing at the Kabul airport and spoke by phone with U.S. veterans assisting ongoing efforts to resettle in the United States Afghans who helped the war effort.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday criticised Mr. Biden’s handling of the end of the war and noted that the country has spiraled downward under renewed Taliban rule since the U.S. withdrawal.