9/11: 20 Years Later

For many Americans, the date September 11th will be etched in memory forever. What happened on that fateful day was something nobody had seen before, or will ever see again, in their lifetime. The day that the world trade centre was struck by two hijacked aircraft, killing all on board and hundreds more in and around the Manhattan landmark. A third aircraft was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, near Washington D.C.

At 7:59 am and 8:14am, Flight 11 and Flight 175 left Logan international airport in Boston. All on board thought they were on their way to Los Angeles. That was not to be as, within the hour, both planes were hijacked in the air and flown into the north and south tower of the world trade centre. A third flight, Flight 77 from Washington Dulles International airport, was also bound for LA. Again, this flight was hijacked above southern Ohio and crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, home of the USA's defence system. By lunchtime, both towers had collapsed, as well as 5 floors of the western side of the Pentagon. CNN reported 2,977 were killed in the attacks, which include a 4th plane that was hijacked above northern Ohio. It is said that the passengers of this plane heard of the New York and Pentagon tragedies and took matters into their own hands, mobbing the terrorists and crashing the plane in a field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.

20 years on, America is remembering all that were killed and affected by the tragic events. This comes days after troops were removed from Afghanistan, the war that was a result of the largest terror attack ever to take place on American soil.

The war was started after it emerged that the Taliban, a terrorist group from the region, were responsible for that attack, with one name being named, Osama Bin Laden. Following the September 11th attack, then President George W Bush demanded that the Taliban hand him over to the USA. Their unsurprising refusal led to America and it's allies invasion of Afghanistan, with the main aim being to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

20 years later and the Taliban are back in charge in Afghanistan, with all British and US troops being removed from the country just days ago. With many believing that the last 20 years were all for nothing, new Taliban leaders have insured that they are not the same as they were 20 years ago and that human rights will be respected. That remains to be seen.

Public polls have suggested that most Americans agree with the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, but more how it was done and overseen by the POTUS being the issue.

Since the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the terror threat in the UK has been at severe, suggesting that an attack is highly likely. The Ministry of Defence has claimed to have thwarted 6 terror attacks in the past year.