9/11: US President Joe Biden vows to continue fighting terrorism

US President Joe Biden gave a speech on Sunday, commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, that left around 3,000 Americans dead. He said, “Through all that has changed over the last 21 years, the enduring resolve of the American people to defend ourselves against those who seek us harm and deliver justice those responsible for the attacks against our people has never once faltered”.

The Democrat added, “It took 10 years to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, but we did. And this summer, I authorized a successful strike on Zawahiri—the man who bin Laden was his deputy at 9/11 and was the leader of Al-Qaeda—because we will not rest. We’ll never forget, we’ll never give up and now Zawahiri can never again threaten the American people.”

Biden touted the recent killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda leader. Zawahiri had become the leader of Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed, and had helped plan the 9/11 attacks as well. 

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The president assured, in his speech on Sunday, that the US is committed to “preventing another attack”. 

“Our intelligence, defence and counterterrorism professionals…continue their vigilance against terrorist threats that has evolved and spread to new regions of the world. We’ll continue to monitor and disrupt those terrorist activities wherever we find them, wherever they exist”, he concluded.  

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Biden was a senator when George W Bush was the president, and he played a key role in convincing the president to return to the White House after the attack, instead of following the intelligence community’s advice to bunker down away from danger. 

After the attack, the US sent troops to Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq. The troop withdrawal from Afghanistan came once Joe Biden became president. However, the decision left the administration reeling, when the Taliban occupied Afghanistan days after the military left.