The horrors of 9/11 aren’t over.

On Sept. 14, 2001, then-President George W. Bush stood on the rubble of the Twin Towers and gave his famous “bullhorn speech.”

“I want you all to know that America today, America today is on bended knee, in prayer for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn,” he said. After some rescue workers yelled “We can’t hear you!” he continued:

“I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you,” replied Bush. “And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

Who could have imagined that 23 years later the people accused of knocking those buildings down would get plea deals?

A military appeals court ruled Monday night against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s order this summer nullifying plea deals reached with alleged 9/11 plotters Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, according to reports.

This clears the way for Mohammad, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and his co-conspirators to plead guilty in a hearing next week. Mohammad, Attash and al-Hawasawi agreed to plead guilty to war crimes in exchange for life sentences.

Their defense attorneys argued that the secretary did not have the authority to overturn the agreements after they were already approved by the top authority of the Guantanamo Bay courts in July. They also claimed Austin’s order was unlawful interference in the case.

All those trapped and killed as the World Trade Center towers collapsed around them, the deaths of firefighters and police officers who rushed in to save those inside, the passengers on the planes, including the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania and the plane that hit the Pentagon, the shattered families, the broken lives, the grief that never stops — all of that ends in plea deals.

The men who had allegedly no problem sentencing thousands of innocents to death had their lawyers make sure they could escape the death penalty.

This isn’t just a kick in the teeth to families of 9/11 victims, it sends a dangerous signal to terrorists who may be waiting to make their move: Do your worst, America will treat you far better than those you harm.

Families of 9/11 victims were outraged when the deals were first struck. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national disgrace,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R- Ky.) said in a statement.

A generation has grown up since Sept. 11, 2001. Young people who weren’t yet born or were small children when the adults around them were glued to the TV for days after the attacks, watching hopefully for rescues, seeing exhausted first responders, people who escaped the fallen towers in time wandering dazed and covered in dust.

For those who were watching and praying, for all those who lined up to donate blood because they wanted to do something, anything to help, for those who put up missing posters around New York, hoping against hope their loved ones were out there alive somewhere, and for all those who learned the worst news of all and have been mourning ever since, we still hear you. The nation still hears you.

And we will never forget.