President Joe Biden cast unity as the country’s “greatest strength” in an address to the nation marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In the six-and-a-half-minute speech released on Friday, the eve of the anniversary, Biden reflected on the heroic acts that shined through the horrifying day when 19 men hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.
“In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, we saw heroism everywhere,” Biden said. “In places expected and unexpected, we also saw something all too rare: a true sense of national unity. Unity and resilience, the capacity to recover and repair in the face of trauma … Unity is what makes us who we are. America at its best … At our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength.”
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The president also spoke to the position the United States holds on the world stage in history.
“We are unique in the history of the world because we are the only nation based on an idea,” Biden said in the video filmed at the White House. “An idea that everyone is created equal and should be treated equally throughout their lives. That is the task before us. To once again lead not just by the example of our power but through the power of our example.”
20 years after September 11, 2001, we commemorate the 2,977 lives we lost and honor those who risked and gave their lives. As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that. pic.twitter.com/WysK8m3LAb
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 10, 2021
Biden is expected to visit New York City; Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and the Pentagon — the locations where all three planes crashed to honor the 2,977 men and women who died in the attacks orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Biden is not expected to give any remarks.
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Former President George W. Bush, president when the Sept. 11 attacks happened, will join Biden at Shanksville, and former President Barack Obama will join Biden in New York City.
The anniversary comes less than two weeks after the final U.S. troops left Afghanistan after 20 years of war to root out al Qaeda.
