If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue peace ... Don't ever defend. Always attack.
I think a lot of programs, policies have been put in place since 9/11, have prevented a 9/11-style attack. On the other hand, I think the threat has become greater, not lesser.
The big unknown is, at what point is a cyberattack so significant that it warrants a physical-world response.
Second issue is the rapidly accelerating increase in the number of vulnerabilities that get discovered every day. And, equally importantly, is the shortening of time between the discovery of the vulnerability and the release of an exploit.
For many years the stakes were clear. There were the Arabs attacking us and us defending ourselves, so basically there were no real problems [between the United States and Israel]. Now there are many small cells, and each of them can destroy on their own. Some can arrive at New York and kill thousands of people.
If Syria disintegrates, God forbid, the whole area will be under threat.
The world has lost faith in American leadership, and the threats are mounting.
We now have capabilities in science and technology that raise the very realistic possibility that a small group of terrorists could kill not only thousands of people, as they did on September 11th, but hundreds of thousands of people. And that has changed the dimension of the threat we face.
My fellow Americans, I must speak to you tonight about a mounting danger in Central America that threatens the security of the United States. This danger will not go away it will grow worse, much worse, if we fail to take action now.
Every national security threat that has been accepted has then been inflated.
