Americans held nationwide ceremonies on Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, but many say that the war in Iraq that made it impossible for a nation to heal.  

 

At the White House, President George W. Bush, joined by his wife and top aides, observed a moment of silence at 8:46 AM local time (1246 GMT), the exact time when the first plane hijacked by terrorists hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York six years ago.

 

All dressed in dark suites, America's first couple bowed to honor the victims as a Marine band played "God Bless America" behind them.

 

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is hosting a memorial service at the Pentagon for relatives of the 184 people killed by the five hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 77.

 

Another ceremony was being held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines flight 93 crashed after some of the 40 passengers and crew rushed the four men who hijacked that plane.

 

In New York, for the first time, much of the ceremony is taking place away from the World Trade Center site - known as Ground Zero- because of the construction there.

 

Most of the ceremony is being held at a nearby park, but relatives of the 2,749 people killed in New York will be able to file down a ramp into the World Trade Center site to lay flowers.

 

Church bells tolled at 8:46 AM local time to mark the moment when the first Trade Center tower was hit.

 

The names of New York victims were being read out as in previous years but for the first time by the surviving firefighters and other emergency workers on duty at the time.

 

Some of those reading out the names were overcome with emotion as they came to list fallen colleagues.

 

The ceremony has two pauses to mark the moments when the two planes crashed into the twin towers, and two more to mark the moments when the buildings collapsed.

 

On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed when four planes were hijacked and flown into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

 

Weary of the war

 

This year's anniversary comes as the nation started a round of fierce debate about the war in Iraq.

 

Americans have been irrevocably linking the war to 9/11 and many of them now say that the war made it impossible for a nation to heal.

 

The number of US troop casualties of 3,700 in Iraq, according to the latest government statistics, has now exceeded the nearly 3,000 deaths on Sept. 11, 2001.

 

A majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- don't think the US campaign against terrorism is going well and only about half the public believes the government is doing all it can to prevent future attacks, according to the latest ABC News poll.

 

The poll also showed that Americans, by nearly 2-1, disapprove of Bush's handling of the war, 65 percent to 34 percent. His broader job approval rating is almost identical.

 

"Everything we are feeling is because the war is going on," said Michael Ragsdale, a Columbia University videographer and archivist who has chronicled the recovery effort since the day after the attacks.

 

"The death and violence continues. First in Afghanistan and then in Iraq," said Ragsdale.

 

"We're fatigued. Many people tell you in the aftermath they are so tired of seeing the death and violence. You can feel it in the struggle to rebuild Ground Zero," she said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2007)