Two of New York’s leaders who guided the city in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001. terrorist attacks are warning that the country is in more danger today than it was leading up to that fateful day. Speaking to John Catsimatidis on New York’s AM-970 on the 14th anniversary of 9/11, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and former Gov. George Pataki (R) said they believe America has lost the sense of power it showed in the wake of the al-Qaeda attacks.
“I’m so concerned about [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria], and al-Qaeda and Iran, and the president’s basically kind of state of denial of the dangers that Iran poses to us,” Giuliani said. “It reminds me of the days before Sept. 11, when we were in a state of denial.”
Both Giuliani and Pataki, who is running for president, criticized Obama for negotiating with the Iranian leadership, which includes “a mass murderer” and “a madman,” Giuliani said in a reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S., along with several other world powers, recently completed a deal that scales back economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the Middle Eastern nation limiting its nuclear program.
Critics of the deal argue it won’t prohibit Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. “I just feel like somehow somebody’s not reading history,” Giuliani said. “We have to completely change our direction in dealing with radical Islamic terrorism,” Pataki added. And that starts with rejecting the Iran deal, Pataki said.
“This just gives a $100 billion signing bonus to a country that is committed to death to America, death to Israel,” he continued. “It is an awful, awful agreement that will make Iran the economic and military power in a most troubled part of the world. And it’s incomprehensible that somehow people think this is a good thing.”
Senate Democrats this week blocked the upper chamber from moving forward on a resolution of disapproval of the deal, making it highly unlikely Republicans will be able to dismantle the agreement. For both Giuliani and Pataki, the deal is part of a broader theme of an America perceived as weak around the world.
“I think [terrorists] once again believe we’re a country that can be taken advantage of,” Giuliani said. “The only thing they understand is the exercise of power.”
