LONDON: Former US President George W. Bush has defended his decision to invade Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I made some big decisions, starting with the big thought of America being at war,” Bush told the BBC in a program marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
“Those decisions weren’t made out of anger, they were made with a goal in mind, which was to protect the American people. I think I was right.”
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, after which Bush declared a “war on terror,” marking the beginning of the 20-year, US-led NATO campaign to eliminate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and security forces were killed over the course of the war, as well as over 2,300 Americans, nearly 500 Britons, and hundreds of other NATO coalition soldiers.
The campaign in Afghanistan has been subject to a significant amount of scrutiny since the Taliban toppled the US-backed government.
The American withdrawal has drawn criticism, with scenes of chaos being widely shared online and by media outlets as Afghans and foreign nationals scrambled to flee the country.
A terror attack against those evacuees in late August, claimed by Daesh’s Afghanistan division, killed nearly 200 people, including 13 American marines, further illustrating the perceived lack of order in the US withdrawal.
“You know, there weren’t any other attacks on America,” Bush said when asked if he thought his post-9/11 decisions made the world a safer place. “We’ll let the historians sort all that out. Let’s just say this: I’m comfortable with the decisions I made.”
