No one could have predicted then that, nearly two years later, Aldrich, now a Marine lieutenant, would be burying a chunk of New York’s financial district in Kabul.
The football-sized piece of the World Trade Center, made of fused glass and concrete and weighing nearly 150 pounds, was given to Aldrich by a New York firefighter. It was buried in a box reading WE WILL NEVER FORGET last night. Today, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “I wish I was in New York,” says Aldrich, a New York native who lost high-school friends in last year’s attacks. “But I feel I’m the tip of the spear, the point man here for representing my town and my country.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and members of his cabinet are in New York today to take part in 9-11 events. The remaining members of the Afghan government commemorated the day with small events attended by foreign diplomats, ministers and ranking members of the military. Kabul Mayor Mohammed Anwar Jekdalek, 52, sent a personal message to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg condemning the attacks as “inhuman and un-Islamic.” “Kabul needs to be rebuilt now the same way that New York was rebuilt after the September 11 attacks,” said Jekdalek shortly before displaying a palm-sized bust of the revered anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud that he is also sending to the New York City Fire Department. For many ordinary Afghans, the September 11 anniversary is overshadowed by the assignation of Massoud on Sept. 9 last year. Black flags and posters of Massoud hang from nearly every storefront in Kabul and a huge commemorative ceremony, attended by thousands of students and soldiers, was held on Monday. “Sept. 9 was such a dark day here,” says Ghais Ashena, 20, an English teacher. “People are thinking about Massoud today, not the Sept. 11 attacks.” Reza Mohammedi, 27, a computer instructor, says many Afghans drew a link between the two events and realized their country could change in the aftermath. “We were both happy and sad when we saw the September 11 attacks,” Mohammedi says. “We knew nothing would change here until this kind of attack happened in the West. September 11 hurt America but helped Afghanistan.”
Security in Kabul was beefed up today, and the U.S. military in Afghanistan was on high alert. Two attacks directed against U.S. armed forces took place early in the day. Around 6:30 a.m. local time, an Afghan man directed small-arms fire at the U.S. military base in Bagram. There were no casualties, and the man was taken into custody. Not long afterward, four rockets landed near the U.S. Special Forces base in Khost. Though the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan succeeded in overthrowing the Taliban regime last year, pockets of Al Qaeda and Taliban still remain active. A new offensive aimed at hunting down remaining militants, dubbed “Champion Strike,” started on Monday.
