9/11 memorial obama
© ReutersHypocrites being hypocritical.
The United States has marked the 14th anniversary of the attacks that were used to spark over a decade of war.

U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama marked the 14th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks with a moment of silence Friday.

While the Obamas marked the anniversary of the attacks on the South Lawn of the White House, more commemoration events took place nationwide. The largest event was held at the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York City. The site, a memorial and museum, was set to be host to an annual reading of the names of those killed in the attacks.

Mourners also gathered near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania, while Pentagon officials held a separate ceremony. Later in the day, Obama is also expected to attend an event at Fort Meade, Maryland. According to the Department of Defense, the event will include an "unprecedented, live, worldwide televised troop talk with service members on the 14th anniversary of 9/11."

"(The president) very much values face time with troops - listening, asking, and answering questions, and he looks forward to taking time on the anniversary of 9/11 to engage directly with service members," Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook stated.

Close to 3000 people were killed when Al-Qaeda carried out a series of attacks using hijacked planes on U.S. landmarks including the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane steered towards Washington crashed near Shanksville after passengers clashed with the hijackers.

The Al-Qaeda attacks were used by the U.S. government to justify the country's invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. So far, the conflict in Afghanistan has resulted in between 106,000-170,000 civilian casualties, according to the March 2015 report "Body Count." The report was authored by a group of doctors and medical experts, and estimated the total death toll of the broader U.S. War on Terror as over 1.3 million. The report only focused on deaths in conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and excluded U.S.-led military operations in countries such as Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The report's estimate puts the death toll of the War on Terror at well over 300 times the number of dead from the initial September 11 attacks.