Warning terror groups not to mess with it, the US has said the decade after the 9/11 attacks has shown to the world the Americans’ national resolve to bring the enemy responsible to justice.
“The people who attacked us on 9/11 were trying to weaken America, were trying to hurt America — and instead they strengthened us, because you don’t mess with this country when you attack us,” the Defence Secretary, Mr Leon Panetta, said in a breakfast meeting with ‘First Responders’.
“What we made clear is that when that happens, we will come and get you,” Mr Panetta said on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “This country unified as a result of what happened.”
He said when he was stuck in Washington days after 9/11, he rented a car to go to his home in California. “I decided I had to get — rent a car and get back home, so I rented a car, drove across country to get back to California.”
“And not only did I do that in record time — but I have to tell you, what I witnessed that day driving across the country is something that’s also seared into my memory, because what I witnessed was this country coming together.
“As I was driving across the country, there were signs coming up, ‘God bless America,’ there were flags that people were putting up; people going to churches, people holding hands. You could see this country coming together to try to confront what had happened,” Mr Panetta said.
It brought this country together in a way that is most reflected by people who put their lives on the line of duty every day and it is reflected by the people in the military, men and women who put their lives on the line of duty every day in the service of this country, he said.