we were reminded that on December 7, 1941

on a Sunday morning, at the crack of dawn, Japanese carrier based aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor, shocking everybody in America. Now we’ve been surprised before. We’ll be surprised again. Remember 911

when aircraft hit American towers killed 2900 people. We were shocked. It was a surprise. Nobody had planned for it, even though Tom Clancy had written a novel about it. So the danger of being surprised is permanent. Israel, a country which has a long history of being at war, which understands that there are enormous threats. Was totally shocked in October of a year ago, when, in fact,

there was this big surprise attack from Hamas that nobody in Israel thought was possible. So I think we have to recognize that surprise exists. Surprise is real. And I’m frankly, very concerned. I think that the dangers to America today are greater than any time since George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776

I think if you look at China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, the various possibilities, if you look at Islamic terrorists, there are just a whole range of things we have to be prepared for, and we have to approach our national security with the attitude that the world is dangerous, that there are people who would love to destroy us, and that we need American forces and American strength that enables us to survive Despite anything that our opponents throw at us, you should never relax our guard, because the world is dangerous. Surprise does occur. You have to do everything you can to block it, to be aware of it, to stop it, but then you have to be prepared to recover and have enough forces and enough capability that you can come back immediately with enormous strength, and if your opponents are convinced that you have that much strength, then there won’t be a surprise, because they won’t do anything, because they’ll know that it would mean their decisive defeat. But that’s why national security really matters, and that’s why making sure that we reform and develop and, if necessary, overhaul all of our intelligence capabilities and all of our national defense capabilities, is a vital job for the incoming administration. We must have a force capable of, frankly, so impressing our opponents that they don’t attack us. The best way to not be surprised is to make sure that your opponents know that you will retaliate with such ferocity that it’s not worth doing.

I think Pearl Harbor is a very important lesson. It’s a very important thing for Americans to remember, and when you combine it with the tragedies on 911, very different situations, 19 terrorists and one, an entire Japanese Navy on the other, but both shocking surprises. So let’s be prepared. Let’s remind our members of Congress that we need to do what we have to to make sure that America is safe. So.