Former president George Bush is warning about isolationism as the United States remembers nearly 3,000 victims and reflects on the decisions that transformed the country.

George W. Bush was listening to second-grade students read at a Florida school when his chief of staff approached and whispered: “A second plane hit the second tower. The United States is under attack.”

  • Why it matters: Twenty-five years later, Bush argues that the US risks forgetting a central lesson of 9/11: Events outside the country can also threaten its national security.

The Second Impact Confirmed the US Was Under Attack

At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. The second impact ended any perception that the first crash had been an accident.

Bush already knew about the first crash when he entered a classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota. At 9:05 a.m., Andrew Card informed him of the second attack.

  • The fact: Nineteen members of al-Qaeda hijacked four planes. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

From the Pentagon to Flight 93: The Minutes That Changed the Country

The 9/11 attacks continued. At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, killing all 64 people aboard and 125 people inside the building.

At 10:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members confronted the hijackers.

The FAA ordered all civilian aircraft to land. The Twin Towers collapsed, and the United States entered a new era of national security.

  • What changed: The attacks triggered the “war on terror” and the invasion of Afghanistan, a conflict that would last 20 years.

Bush Warns About a Forgotten Lesson at the 9/11 25th Anniversary

This week, Bush returned to public view to connect that day with a current debate: how deeply the United States should become involved in international conflicts.

“Our nation occasionally goes through isolationist periods,” he said. For the former president, believing that international problems do not matter means disregarding the lessons of 9/11.

Bush also recalled realizing that September 11 had made him a “wartime president” and that protecting the country had become his priority.

  • The warning: Bush did not necessarily advocate sending troops abroad, but he defended the idea that the US should support people confronting authoritarian governments.

The 25th Anniversary Introduces a New Generation to 9/11

 

The 9/11 Memorial is commemorating the anniversary Friday with a reading of the victims’ names and moments of silence marking the attacks, the collapse of the towers, and the crash of Flight 93.

The anniversary also presents a different challenge: Millions of Americans were too young to remember the attacks or were born after 2001.

  • Twenty-five years later: The anniversary honors not only those who died that morning, but also the victims of illnesses related to 9/11.

For one generation, 9/11 remains a personal memory. For another, it has already become history.

Bush’s warning has once again raised the question of which lessons from that day should endure.

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SOURCE: EFE / CBS News / The Center Square