September 11 attacks 25 years on: Anthony Albanese leads Australian tributes to nearly 3000 victims

Twenty-five years after watching the September 11 terror attacks unfold from Washington, former Prime Minister John Howard says Australia did the “right thing” joining the allied forces in the Middle East despite flawed intelligence.

The former Liberal leader had been in America’s capital when four planes were hijacked, with two crashing into the World Trade Centre, one into the Pentagon in Washington DC, and another into a field in Pennsylvania.

Mr Howard had immediately pledged Australia’s resolute solidarity with the American people and formally invoked the ANZUS Treaty in the days that followed, a longstanding alliance with the US.

“It meant that the world would never be the same,” Mr Howard told Radio National Breakfast.

“I think we did the right thing. I just knew that it meant a lot to the whole world, and it certainly meant that I quickly came to realise just how important our association with the Americans was because this powerful country had been attacked in an atrocious, cruel manner.

“I was unhappy with aspects of the ultimate withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“It did look rather chaotic at the time. Overall, I don’t have any regrets. I think we did the right thing in going into Afghanistan.”

Mr Howard had met with then President George W Bush the day prior to the al-Qaida attacks and despite being rushed to the embassy for safety when news broke, still attended Congress the next day.

He was one of dozens of prominent Australians and politicians to mark a century on from the attacks on Friday, including current PM Anthony Albanese.

“We think of all those whose lives were changed forever, amid scenes so confronting that they remain seared into our collective memory.

“It was a day that changed the world. Yet amid its horror, it showed us the greater side of humanity.

“From New York to Washington to Pennsylvania, so many people responded to terror with extraordinary courage, compassion, and defiance, and together they defined the spirit of a nation.

“We hold on to that, and we remember everyone who never came home from what should have been just an ordinary day in September.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles reflected on anniversary and the ripple affects it had on national security in Australia.

Tens of thousands of Australian Defence Force personnel served in or directly supported operations in Afghanistan over the 20-year commitment following the 9/11 attacks.

“What it heralded was obviously a huge change in terms of wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan,” he said.

“More than 40,000 Australians served in those over the coming years, more than 40 lost their lives.

“So, we very much remember all of them.”

Visiting Canberra this week for an address at the National Press Club, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the world is still paying the price.

“That was a profound and enduring geopolitical cost which ensued from, I think, an ultimately failed geopolitical decision,” Mr Rudd said.

Speaking to RN Breakfast on Friday, Mr Rudd said while he agreed with Mr Howard’s decision to join the allied forces in Afghanistan, the decision to follow the US into Iraq on flaws intelligence was “comprehensively wrong”.

“He got that (Afghanistan) right. What he got comprehensively wrong was Iraq,” Mr Rudd said.

In the years that followed the United Nations inspectors had concluded Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

Asked on his 2007 promise to withdraw troops from Iraq on Thursday, Mr Rudd labelled the decision to decapitate pro-Sunni leadership — which allowed for a “greater Iranian satrapy” — as a “failed geopolitical decision”.

“That was a profound and enduring geopolitical cost which ensued. Politics, like international policy decisions, are always capable of being flawed,” he said.

“I still can’t see how we could have taken an alternative decision.

“If you look at where Iraq is today and its contribution to Middle East security, I think we’d have to say this has been a retrograde step.”

Opposition leader Angus Taylor also reflected on the attacks, using the milestone to reiterate his commitment to national security and counterterrorism.

“We remember the almost 3000 people killed including the 10 Australians, we think of their families, and we face the fact that Islamist extremism remains a significant threat,” he said.

“My commitment to Australians is to keep out, and root out Islamist extremism. We will protect our way of life.”

His shadow foreign minister Ted O’Brien said it had been a “quarter of a century since the world changed forever”.

He highlighted Mr Howard’s leadership 25 years ago and said he invoked the ANZUS Treaty “not just out of legal obligation, but out of a deep, emotional bond of abiding mateship”.

“The Coalition reaffirms our sacred pledge to stand unyieldingly against evil, terrorism, and violent extremism in all its forms,” Mr O’Brien said.

“This commitment renews a promise to work hand-in-hand with the United States and other international partners to protect the open, democratic way of life that defines us.”