{"id":30211,"date":"2022-09-11T13:38:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T13:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/11\/biden-honors-911-victims-as-shadow-of-afghan-war-looms\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:20:27","slug":"biden-honors-911-victims-as-shadow-of-afghan-war-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/2022\/09\/11\/biden-honors-911-victims-as-shadow-of-afghan-war-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden honors 9\/11 victims as shadow of Afghan war looms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story has been updated to reflect President Joe Biden\u2019s comments during the ceremony.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden<\/a> marked the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks<\/a>, taking part in a somber wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon held under a steady rain and paying tribute to \u201cextraordinary Americans\u201d who gave their lives on one of the nation\u2019s darkest days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s ceremony occurred a little more than a year after Biden ended the long and costly war in Afghanistan that the U.S. and allies launched in response to the terror attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
President Joe Biden participates in a wreath laying ceremony while visiting the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, to honor and remember the victims of the September 11th terror attack. Standing with the President are Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley. (Susan Walsh\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Biden noted that even after the United States left Afghanistan that his administration continues to pursue those responsible for the 9\/11 attacks. Last month, Biden announced the U.S. had killed Ayman al-Zawahri, the Al-Qaida leader who helped plot the Sept. 11 attacks, in a clandestine operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will never forget, we will never give up,\u201d Biden said. \u201cOur commitment to preventing another attack on the United States is without end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president was joined by family members of the fallen, first responders who had been at the Pentagon on the day of the attack, as well as Defense Department leadership for the annual moment of tribute carried out in New York City, the Pentagon and Somerset County, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe owe you an incredible, incredible debt,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ending the Afghanistan war, the Democratic president followed through on a campaign pledge to bring home U.S. troops from the country\u2019s longest conflict<\/a>. But the war concluded chaotically in August 2021, when the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed<\/a> 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\u2019s airport<\/a>, where thousands of desperate Afghans gathered in hopes of escape before the final U.S. cargo planes departed over the Hindu Kush.<\/p>\n\n\n\t