America marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday with solemn ceremonies given added poignancy by the recent chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and return to power of the Taliban.
Heart-wrenching commemorations will unfold at each of the three sites where attacks were made on 11 September 2001 striking the cultural, financial and political hearts of the United States and changing the world forever.
The memorials come with US troops finally gone from Afghanistan, but national discord - and for President Joe Biden, political peril - are overshadowing any sense of closure.
At New York's Ground Zero, where two pools of water now stand where the Twin Towers used to, relatives will read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed, in a four-hour-long service starting at 8:30 am (1230 GMT).
Six moments of silence will be observed, corresponding with the times the two World Trade Center towers were struck, and fell, and the moments the Pentagon was attacked and Flight 93 crashed.
Monica Iken-Murphy, who lost her 37-year-old husband Michael Iken in the World Trade Center, says this will be a "heightened" anniversary for many Americans.
But for her, as for many other survivors, the pain has never wavered.
"I feel like it just happened," she told AFP.
A whole generation has grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.
A towering new sky scraper has risen over Manhattan, replacing the Twin Towers. And less than two weeks ago, the last US soldiers flew from Kabul airport, ending the so-called "forever war."
But the Taliban who once sheltered Osama bin Laden – who the US government claim was behind 9/11 - are back ruling Afghanistan, the mighty US military humiliated. In Guantanamo Bay, alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men continue to await trial, nine years after charges were filed.
Even the full story of how the attack came to happen remains secret. Although last week Biden ordered the release of classified documents from the FBI investigation over the next six months, it is unlikely the full story will be told.
- 'Honor and memorialize' –
Three main incidents will be remembered. At Ground Zero, some 2,753 people, from all over the world, were killed in the initial explosions, jumped to their deaths, or simply vanished in the inferno of the collapsing towers. The Pentagon was hit, and a plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will stop at each of these places on Saturday to "honor and memorialize the lives lost," the White House said.
The president had planned for this to be a pivotal day in his nearly eight-month-old presidency.
However, instead of presiding over a moment of unity, Biden will traverse a country angry about the messy Kabul evacuation, which included 13 US soldiers killed by a suicide bomber, and stung by the broader realization of failure and defeat.
For the relatives of victims, the anniversary, as always, is about keeping the memory of their loved ones alive.
"It's like Pearl Harbor," said Frank Siller, whose firefighter brother Stephen died at the World Trade Center.
"People who weren't alive don't have the same feeling about it as those who were alive. But America has never forgotten about Pearl Harbour and America will never forget about 9/11."
AFP, Mizzima
