“We reaffirm our commitment to keep a sacred trust with their families — including the children who lost parents, and who have demonstrated such extraordinary resilience. But this anniversary is also about reflecting on what we’ve learned in the 20 years since that awful morning,” Obama said in a statement early Saturday morning.
“That list of lessons is long and growing. But one thing that became clear on 9/11 — and has been clear ever since — is that America has always been home to heroes who run towards danger in order to do what is right.”
“It’s the firefighters running up the stairs as others were running down. The passengers deciding to storm a cockpit, knowing it could be their final act. The volunteers showing up at recruiters’ offices across the country in the days that followed, willing to put their lives on the line,” the former President wrote.
That same selflessness, Obama said, has been on display “again and again” over the past two decades.
“We’re seeing it today — in the doctors and nurses, bone tired, doing what they can to save lives; the service members, some of whom weren’t even born 20 years ago, putting themselves at risk to save Americans and help refugees find a better life; the first responders battling roaring fires and rising waters to bring families to safety. They represent what is best in America, and what can and should bring us together,” he said.
“9/11 reminded us how so many Americans give of themselves in extraordinary ways — not just in moments of great crisis, but every single day. Let’s never forget that, and let’s never take them for granted,” Obama added.
Since Biden’s withdrawal of the last US troops from Afghanistan last month, Obama has said little about his view of the decision, keeping his thoughts on how the war ended closely held.
