" I'm asked, and have been asked for the last two years or more almost continuously ... isn't the world more dangerous now? And, in particular, ... isn't the world more dangerous since the attacks of September 11th, 2001? "
You and me both, Rudy.
" I believe the world is safer than it was before September 11th, 2001, and I believe it's safer in very realistic ways - in ways that it wasn't before that. "
Really, it's a good gig you got there, Rudy. I don't begrudge you your new private sector life. I'm pretty sure you deserve it and I like to see former public servants succeed. But it's a real shame anybody would ask you to speak on a topic about which you appear to know very little - though you do have all sorts of beliefs.
"I believe the world is safer ..."
Your world, Rudy. Your perfectly planned, first-class world of five star hotels, bullet-proof limos, and wall-to-wall, point-to-point security. You sure appear to believe a lot of things, Rudy. It's real easy to believe when someone else does the driving, makes the bed, picks up the garbage.
My world - coach-class, guest-house, and one ear always to the ground - my world isn't any safer, Rudy - even though, unlike many of the people with whom I work, I get to leave behind the bombs and bullets, the corrupt officials and the blackouts, the terrible boredom of unemployment and the sharp bursts of fear. I don't have a lot of beliefs about that world, and neither do the people who can't leave. We can't afford to believe.
Instead of believing in things, Rudy, listen to yourself:
" [W]e were viewing the world and people in the world maybe the way we'd like to think they were, not really what was going on. And the world was dealing with terrorism and dealing with it in a way that I believe made it much, much worse, and in a way we have to analyze if we really want to end it in the future, because we can't keep repeating the same set of mistakes. And part of growing is analyzing history and trying to figure out what mistakes you've made so you can improve in the future. And there are some basic things that in here, maybe even in our personality as Americans that we have to analyze and look at. This is not the first time that we have been unrealistic about threats in the world that got much worse than they would have been had we confronted them earlier. "
It's good advice for a dangerous world.
Posted by Martial