by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

BRUSSELS/JERUSALEM/NEW YORK (Worthy News) – The United States and its allies are commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst terror attacks on American soil, which had worldwide implications ranging from wars to increased surveillance.

Nearly 3,000 people—2,977 victims—were killed when 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized four passenger aircraft on September 11, 2001, crashing two into New York’s World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon near Washington.

A fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members fought back against the hijackers.

Another 9,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program have died over the past quarter-century as first responders, survivors and others exposed to toxic materials at the attack sites continue to suffer from 9/11-related illnesses.

Victims’ relatives, first responders, survivors and political leaders were gathering Friday for remembrance ceremonies in Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon in Virginia and near Shanksville.

NATO REMEMBERS ATTACKS

Across the Atlantic, the NATO military alliance was preparing a solemn ceremony at its headquarters in Brussels, underscoring how the attacks transformed not only the United States but its allies.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska was due to join U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Scott Oudkirk and Lieutenant General William D. “Hank” Taylor, the U.S. military representative to NATO, at the alliance’s 9/11 and Article 5 Memorial.

At 14:46 Central European Time, NATO planned a moment of silence marking the exact minute, 25 years earlier, when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

Flags were to fly at half-staff at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Allied Command Operations in Mons, Belgium, and Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia.

The commemoration carries particular significance for NATO: September 11 prompted the alliance to invoke Article 5 of its founding treaty for the first—and so far only—time in its history, declaring that an attack against one member was an attack against all.

WARS FOLLOW ATTACKS

That decision helped usher in a new era of Western military operations and counterterrorism efforts, most prominently the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and its Taliban hosts.

The attacks also profoundly reshaped airport security, intelligence sharing, border controls and government surveillance in the United States and allied nations.

The subsequent “war on terror” expanded far beyond Afghanistan. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, although Iraq was not found to have been responsible for the September 11 attacks, and Washington and its allies carried out counterterrorism operations across the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.

More than 940,000 people have died directly from violence in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. Researchers estimate millions more died indirectly from the consequences of the conflicts, which also displaced tens of millions of people.

Yet a quarter-century later, terrorism remains a concern while NATO increasingly focuses on another threat: Russia and its war against Ukraine.

ISRAEL HONORS VICTIMS

In Israel, where terrorism and its consequences remain deeply embedded in public life, American and Israeli officials gathered earlier this week at the 9/11 Living Memorial outside Jerusalem.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joined Israeli and American representatives Wednesday for the ceremony, which was brought forward because the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins Friday evening.

“Twenty-five years after the horrific September 11 attacks, we remember the 2,977 innocent lives taken,” Huckabee told those gathered.

He described the memorial as a testament to U.S.-Israeli solidarity and their shared determination to confront terrorism and protect innocent lives.

The 30-foot (9-meter) bronze monument in Jerusalem’s Arazim Valley depicts an American flag transforming into a memorial flame and incorporates a piece of metal recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center.

JERUSALEM MEMORIAL

The Jerusalem site is especially significant as it displays the names of all 2,977 people killed in the September 11 attacks, including five Israelis.

Back in New York, the names of the victims were again to be read aloud at Ground Zero, accompanied by moments of silence marking the attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Among those being remembered are the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who died while responding to the disaster.

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