Former President George W. Bush recalled comments he made before the 2000 election: ” ‘The vice president [Democratic candidate Al Gore] and I have a disagreement about the use of troops,’ I said in the first debate [on October 3, 2000]. ‘…I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders.’ At the time, I was worried about overextending our military by undertaking peacekeeping missions as we had in Bosnia and Somalia. But after 9/11, I changed my mind. Afghanistan was the ultimate nation building mission. We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society.”
– George W. Bush, Decision Points, Page 205