My reading of the comment was that the "we" who have entered an adversarial world means the entire world, and the "we" who know models can be backdoored means people who have been paying attention to published research on the topic. An adversarial world doesn't care how much you individually are interested in conflict, except to the extent that you might be an easy mark.

To stay at the top you need to keep fighting. Lots of US americans believe that even if they are not benefiting anymore from being the richest country in the world.