Political Quotes

“this week, which will be one Americans remember for a long time as the anniversary of the September 11 attacks of last year, a lot of second-guessing has been going on about what we might have done differently. Part of that is based on the fact that there was a lot of evidence that the United States should have been prepared to deal with the kind of attack that occurred, even if not at that precise time and place. I think history will show, notwithstanding all of the evidence, it would have been very difficult for us to actually defend against those attacks, but it should not dissuade us from acting on similar evidence in the future. I fear there is another situation developing which, both because we are focused on the war on terror and because it presents us with some unpleasant choices about what to do, is creating a similar situation where there is evidence that we should be paying attention to a problem, but either because we do not want to deal with it or because there is a lack of consensus about how to deal with it, the United States is not taking adequate precautions or taking adequate steps to deal with the situation. What I have in mind is a concern that has been now discussed in two very recently released Government reports on the threat that is posed by the nation of China against the United States.”