But being prepared to defend yourself if you have to is not the same thing.

"A man must always be prepared to defend himself against attack."

You must be prepared to defend yourself at all times.

Yes, we must always be prepared to defend our freedom.

They came to a stand on a low hill and prepared to defend.

Maybe the fact that they were prepared to defend themselves stopped it.

As you see, I am prepared to defend my claim.

"Are you prepared to defend this report on the Hill?"

They'd have new technologies we aren't prepared to defend against.

We were all standing, prepared to defend ourselves in our various ways.