Years Later 10 Rudy Giuliani:
“We’re Stronger Than Ever After 9/11”
[ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ] By David A. Patten
MERICA IS BACK AND STRONGER THAN EVER.” This stirring expression of optimism hails from Rudy Giuliani, whose unwavering lead- ership as mayor of New York City helped guide the nation through its darkest hours after the devastating terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“A
Ten years later, the man who was cel- ebrated as “America’s Mayor,” wants the country to know that despite our eco- nomic challenges and global upheavals, the United States today stands stronger than ever before.
In the days following the attack, Giuliani famously stood by the smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and issued this defi ant declaration: “We’re going to rebuild. We’re going to be stronger than we were before . . . terrorism can’t stop us.” Now, in a exclusive interview with Newsmax maga- zine to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Giuliani says that thanks to better security and the American mili- tary actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wave of major follow-on attacks that experts considered all but inevitable have yet to materialize.
Rudy Giuliani was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983-1989, and mayor of New York from 1994-2001. His stalwart leadership in the aſt ermath of 9/11 lead to Time magazine naming him Person of the Year for 2001 (“America’s Mayor”).
“There’s no question that both New York and America are stronger than ever,” says Giuliani. “New York City, which was the focal point of the most devastating attack, is now a bigger city, a richer city, a more diverse city, a spiritually stronger city. In every way you can measure a city, New York City is bigger and stronger than it was even on Sept. 10, 2001. The country is stronger because it has faced the unthink- able and come through it. Even though we have scars — and tremendous scars that will be with us forever — the country responded to Sept. 11 better than anyone ever thought we would. “There wasn’t panic. There wasn’t dev- astation in the sense of people not being able to go back to work and being able to carry on their lives. There was a tremendous amount of mourning; there still is. But there was this real sense that America can withstand something like this.” In the interview, Giuliani, an oft-mentioned GOP contender for 2012, also pegs President Barack Obama as the weakest leader in his lifetime — “weaker than Jimmy Carter.” He shares his innermost feelings at the moment he learned Osama bin Laden was dead, and he asks Americans to give Transportation Security Administration agents at airports a break: “They’re just doing their job.’’
Newsmax: How did the 9/11 attacks change our nation? Giuliani: They have changed the country immeasur-
ably. It’s one of the defi ning events of the last 40 or 50 years, and probably, the defi ning event of the 21st century. It’s one of those events like the attack on Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of John F. Kennedy, where everyone remembers where they were or when they heard about it — either at the scene, on the television, on the radio or from a friend. And it has shaped a great deal of, not just America, but the world since then. Although it was the most devastating attack in the history of our country, it has had a very big impact on the rest of the world.
Continued on page 54 SEPTEMBER 2011 / NEWSMAX / 9|11: A DECADE LATER 53
P.51/ISTOCKPHOTO / P.52/SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES / P.53/STAN HONDA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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