Marco Rubio

Some of the biggest strategic blunders in human history had as their foundation a lack of imagination: the belief that an adversary could not do something because it had never been done before.

Some of the biggest strategic blunders in human history, the foundation of those blunders were a lack of imagination, the belief that an adversary or whoever could not do something because it had never been done before.

Before the December 1941 attack, the US thought its ships at Pearl Harbor were safe because it did not think the Japanese could get there, much less have torpedoes that could navigate such a narrow strait and hit the ships.

The US thought it was safe for those ships in Pearl Harbor because we didn't think that the Japanese could get there much less have torpedoes that could navigate such a narrow straight and hit these ships until they did.

The US never imagined that terrorists would strike the homeland by training for a year to become pilots and then hijacking commercial aircraft and crashing them into buildings, and then they did.

We never thought in our wildest dreams that terrorists would strike us in the homeland by training for a year to become pilots and then hijacking commercial aircraft and crashing them into buildings. And they did.

The one thing that always keeps him up at night is a tendency in the human psyche to say there is no time or energy to prepare for the unforeseen or for what has never been seen done before.

The one thing that always keeps me up at night is something in the human psyche that says I don't have time or energy to sort of prepare for the unforeseen or what I've never seen done before.

Not preparing for the unforeseen leads to strategic surprise, and some strategic surprises change the course of human history.

that leads to strategic surprise and some sometimes strategic surprises that change the course of human history.