Events honor those killed in the 9/11 attacks
Today marks the 22nd anniversary the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which continue to shape the world we live in.
Those old enough to remember the attacks will have no trouble bringing to mind the shock, disbelief and horror of that Tuesday more than two decades ago. But even those two young to have a clear memory have grown up in its long shadow.
The attacks, which killed 2,977 people in four coordinated incidents. Two planes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center, a plane crashed into the Pentagon and United Flight 93, a plane hijackers likely planned to crash in Washington, D.C. crashed in Shanksville, about 100 miles from Butler, after passengers fought back.
The attacks have resonated in our public consciousness ever since. The 9/11 attacks are most often compared to the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and, as you'll be able to read in Tuesday's America 250 special section, there are both compelling similarities and big differences.
The most immediate effect of 9/11 was the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, which started less than a month after the attacks and ended a little more than two years ago.
Over 20 years, more than 2,400 U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, with thousands more seriously wounded. And more than 65,000 Afghan national military and police, as well as more than 47,000 Afghan civilians, were killed.
There are events countywide today to commemorate this anniversary. As we get further from the attacks, such commemorations are essential.
The nearly 3,000 who died on 9/11, as well as the countless who have died in terrorist attacks worldwide in the decades since, must be remembered. They were taken from their family and friends in a senseless act of violence that continues to resonate down to today.
All of them, along with the soldiers and civilians killed in the wars that followed, deserve to never be forgotten.
— JK
