The world after 9/11/2001
16 years have passed since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, which killed almost 3,000 people, including Romanians
Bogdan Matei, 11.09.2017, 12:10
16 years on, America and the international community continue to mourn the dead of September 11 2001, the darkest day in the history of terrorist attacks against civilization. 3,000 people were killed at the time by Al Qaidas kamikaze commandos, who hijacked four planes and crashed them into emblematic buildings for the United States economic and military power, the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon. One of the planes, which is believed to have targeted the White House itself, crashed in a forest after the passengers preferred to die fighting the suicidal terrorists. The number of victims has continued to rise in the following years, and a new monument was built this year in their memory.
According to Radio Romanias correspondent in the United States, a Long Island beach where people gathered on September 11 2001 to watch in horror how the twin towers collapsed, is the venue chosen for a steel tower measuring over 9 metres in height and with granite plaques on which the names of the dead are engraved. The names of the 582 police forces, fire fighters, constructors and volunteers who spent days and even months among the ruins of the World Trade Centre and who later died because of the toxic ashes and smoke they inhaled were engraved on a separate plaque. In a symbolic detail, the plaque contains some free space for the names of those who may still be killed in the same way. Around 75,000 people still suffer from mental and physical disorders caused by the trauma 16 years ago.
The overwhelming majority of those killed were civilians from 90 different countries, including 5 of Romanian origin: Eugen Gabriel Lazar, Corina and Alexandru Liviu Stan, Joshua Poptean and Ana Fosteris, as well as the famous architect Arkady Zaltsman from the majority Romanian speaking Republic of Moldova, whose designs were used in the building of the Parliament Palace in Chisinau. Like the entire civilised world, Bucharest also categorically condemned the attacks and joined the anti-terrorist coalition from day one.
Already connected to America by a strategic partnership but still in the NATO antechamber, Romania did not hesitate to send its military to Afghanistan, where the Al Qaida network was enjoying the protection of the Taliban. According to the data published by the Romanian Defence Ministry, 25 Romanian military have been killed in combat and patrol missions and 100 have been wounded in the Afghan theatre of operations. 16 years on, the Romanian military are still there alongside their American colleagues. Deployed in the south, near Kandahar, they provide counselling to the Afghan armed and security forces and humanitarian assistance to the Afghan civilian population, carrying out daily reconnaissance missions, which often result in the capture of Taliban insurgents. (Translated by C. Mateescu, edited by D. Vijeu)
