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September 10, 2026 / 11:40 AM EDT
/ CBS News
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Former President George W. Bush gave rare remarks on Wednesday as Americans mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying that Americans "don't pay attention to the lesson of 9/11.""Our nation occasionally goes through isolationist periods, where the attitude is, 'Well, we've got too many problems at home. Therefore, who cares about what happens overseas?'" said Bush, who was nine months into his first term when the attacks occurred. "Which really means to me they just don't pay attention to the lessons of 9/11, because what happens overseas matters to our national security at home."Bush spoke about it at his presidential library in Dallas with Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser at the time of the attacks and then went on to become secretary of state. He said that as people are "struggling against tyranny, it makes sense" for the U.S. to get involved."We don't have to send troops," Bush said. "We ought to at least stand with them and stand beside them because this is what we went through 250 years ago. And again, it's a belief that everybody wants to be free and we saw that in Afghanistan." Bush launched the war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, and then supported the development of a democratic government after years of humanitarian abuses by the Taliban. But the conflict dragged on for 20 years, becoming America's longest war, until the U.S. withdrew and Afghanistan came under Taliban rule rule again in 2021. Bush said he disagrees with the view of some Americans who say people there "don't know the difference" of what it is like to live under freedom.
