UPDATED: 16 Jan 2008 GMT
Speeches 2006
Commemoration of the 5th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania
VENUE: American Embassy, Dar es Salaam
September 11, 2006
Remarks by Ambassador Michael Retzer
Good afternoon. Five years ago, at about this very moment in New York City, our world changed upon impact of a jetliner crashing into the World Trade Center. Three other planes crashed that Tuesday morning: a second went into the other tower of the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field, after its passengers bravely overpowered the hijackers, knowing that if they did not, their plane too would become a weapon.
September 11 continues to be a day of remembrance and sadness. We come here together as a reminder of the shared challenge we face as an international community to confront an ideology that promotes hate, destruction, and death.
This fifth anniversary is an appropriate occasion to reaffirm our unequivocal condemnation of all acts of terror. No faith condones the deliberate targeting and killing of innocent civilians, and no cause of grievance can ever justify it.
Five years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, we continue to witness the effects of terrorism throughout the world. It has brought tragedy and terrible grief to innocent people from Indonesia to India, and from Egypt to England. And yes, before 9/11, there was August 7th, 1998, here, and in Kenya. Yet, in each of these places, once the debris was cleared and the dead mourned, communities began the process of rebuilding their cities and their lives.
One need only drive down Myini Avenue today and see an impressive, modern structure where the U.S. Embassy once stood. And every day as I walk into this beautiful building and see you, my colleagues, I am reminded that despite the efforts of terrorists to disrupt peace, the resilience of people here and around the world has demonstrated that the human spirit will forever triumph over tragedy.
As President Bush said last week, September 11 made clear that the only way to secure the United States “is to advance liberty and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism.” Your work here is a daily tribute to those who perished on August 7 and 9/11. Let us pause for a moment of silence, and pray for those whose lives were lost and for those family members whose lives forever changed five years ago today.
Thank you.
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