Jurgen Habermas Quotes

After 9/11, we had to look at the world differently. After 9/11, we had to recognize that when we saw a threat, we must take it seriously before it comes to hurt us. In the old days we'd see a threat, and we could deal with it if we felt like it or not. But 9/11 changed it all.

The attacks of September 11 persuaded many Americans that what might seem to be obscure or distant potential threats can very quickly materialize and it therefore makes sense to attend to them even before they become urgent.

I fear, my Lords, it is too much the temper of this country to be insensible of the approach of danger, until it comes with accumulated terror upon us.

I can do whatever is necessary to protect the United States.

When these attacks occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.

Whenever America sends its citizens into harm's way, it must do so with eyes wide open.

America has historically met the challenges to its national security with decisive actions that defeated or, at a minimum, contained the threat.

But it is equally incontrovertible that if our intelligence gathering process is seriously flawed, we had better find out and find out fast if we are to avoid another Sept. 11.

Global security can be formed or threatened by heads of state whose wisdom, folly and obsessions shape global events. But often it is the security practitioners, those rarely in the headlines but whose craft and energy quietly break new ground, who keep us safe or put us in peril.

When we were scared about 9/11, we federalized the airport security, we spent millions for body armor for dogs in Ohio. All that over-reaction comes from fear and government - bad combination.

Abroad, our most important policy is to support our troops and continue forward-thinking foreign policy in the war on terror - keeping our enemies on the run and hitting them before they hit us.

Going to war is a serious matter. And it should be done very carefully and deliberately with clear national interests at stake before the United States or our Commander-in-Chief acts.

The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information. It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems.

You don't want to institutionalize the excesses required to meet extraordinary threats. The law just can't anticipate all the contingencies.

Looking back over my more than a half century in intelligence, I have not experienced a time when we've been beset by more crises and threats around the globe.

There is a danger in action. There is a danger in inaction. The people have to decide which is greater…. A 21 year old Moslem Male is a lot more likely to be a terrorist than an 85 year old Norwegian grandmother …. Scrutinize more carefully the people who are in a category that might make them more likely to be a danger.

Unless I am gravely mistaken, I am the only reporter in this city, teeming with reporters, who goes to bed every night praying that he is dead wrong. I see danger—fearful danger—hanging over this country that I love. I keep hoping it is a mirage, in which case I shall indeed be dead wrong.

If we announced threats [to airlines and flights] as we received them, we would be catering to the terrorists' goals.

I knew we were going to get into this sort of a mess when we went in there. And I don’t see how we’re ever going to get out of it without fighting a major war with the Chinese.

The threat is there, and we get paid to tell Americans it is there.

Uncle Sam’s Latest Greatest Shortest War

I was haunted by the constant awareness that I might be required to calculate and decide in an instant of time whether some kind of nuclear action might be required in response to a real or imagined or mistaken attack perceived to be under way against my country.

Every national security threat that has been accepted has then been inflated.

The amount of our danger, therefore, it would be impolitic to conceal from the people. It was the first duty of ministers to make it known, and after doing so, it should have been their study to provide against it, and to point out the means to the country by which it might be averted.

The lesson of September 11 is that whenever this country sees a gathering threat, we’ve got to deal with it.