13th anniversary of 9/11, just hours after Obama vow to ‘destroy’ ISIS

Led by President Obama in Washington and solemn officials and relatives of those who died in New York, Americans on Thursday again recalled the terrorist attacks that struck the heart of the nation on Sept. 11, 2001, an anniversary that comes a day after the president called for stepped up military action in the Middle East.

As they have every year, New Yorkers paused at the Twin Towers site and read aloud the names of the nearly 3,000 killed when planes struck the World Trade Center, one of three sites for the attacks. The roll call of the dead stopped four times for memorial silence, when the first plane hit, when the second plane hit and twice more when each tower fell.

Joanne Barbara, whose husband of 30 years, Gerard Barbara, was a Fire Department of New York captain who died, urged all to remember not only the lost but “those who continue to suffer from the aftermath.”

“May God bless America, and may we never, never forget,” she said on broadcast images.

Just before 9 a.m., Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden exited the White House to mark a moment of silence on the South Lawn for the 13th anniversary of the attacks in New York, Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon in suburban Arlington, Va. Television images showed the leaders looking mournful as “Taps” played.

This year’s ceremony comes as tensions in the Mideast have increased and just 12 hours after Obama told the nation that the United States would lead a coalition to “destroy” the Islamic State, a fundamentalist group that has seized territory in Iraq and Syria and claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on noncombatants, including the beheading of two U.S. journalists.

Obama honored families of people who died at the Pentagon, praising them for their triumph of “hope over fear, love over hate” and for inspiring others to face present threats in the same spirit.

The president also praised the military personnel who “serve in harm’s way to keep our country safe, and to meet the threats of our time.”

“As Americans, we draw strength from you, for your love is the ultimate rebuke to those who attacked us that bright blue morning,” Obama told families and military service members.

“They sought to break our spirit and to prove to the world that their power to destroy was greater than our power to persevere and to build,” Obama said. “But you, and America, proved them wrong.”

A light breeze blew through the American flags at the Pentagon as a military chaplain led those in attendance in prayer.

Obama praised the current U.S. military as the “9/11 generation,” a fighting force he said that has “answered our country’s call.”

On Friday, he said, there will be teenagers who were born after the attacks of Sept. 11. Their lives have been shaped by events they didn’t personally witness, he said.

“What gives me hope,” he said, “is that it’s these young Americans who will shape all the days to come.”

In New York, the site has greatly changed over the years.

For the first time, the National September 11 Memorial Museum — which includes artifacts and graphic photos of the attacks — is open on the anniversary of the attack. The One World Trade Center office tower, the replacement building, has risen 1,776 feet into the sky and is scheduled to be occupied by next year.

But the memory of the attack remains painful. Franklin Murray of New York wore a shirt with a photo of his brother, Harry Glen, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the companies most decimated by the attack.

He told the Associated Press that he had attended the ceremony before but “before it was getting harder, so I forced myself to get down here.”

“Coming down to the area is rough,” he said.

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