Stephen Flynn

I really think it's just the opposite. We are robbing ourselves of our greatest strength in dealing with the risk of terrorism and basically by not engaging the American people.

The lesson of 9/11 should have been look around. Are there things here that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction?

Now the war on terror has really been about taking the battle to the enemy and confronting terrorism beyond our shores.

If, on the other hand, we have thought through the worst-case scenarios, we've worked our way through how we would respond to them, we have plans in place, one is we'll be able to deal with the natural disasters we cannot prevent.

The biggest opportunity to intercept the terrorists is not in the actual act of terror. It's almost too late. Where you can catch them is when they're out doing surveillance.

We think if terrorists strike, it will be catastrophic. It's only catastrophic if we allow ourselves to be so exposed and we are unable to respond well.

We don't have to be all running around wringing our hands at terrorists who may be here causing mischief, but we really should be focusing on how do we make places safer in general.

As a society, the biggest danger we face is not terrorist attacks. The biggest danger we face is how we react to the terrorist attacks.

The lesson of 9/11 should have been look around. Are there things here that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction?

Fear only works when you know there is a threat and you feel powerless to deal with the threat.

The biggest opportunity to intercept the terrorists is not in the actual act of terror. It's almost too late. Where you can catch them is when they're out doing surveillance.

We are actually compounding our risk on a daily basis. Katrina is a perfect illustration of this. We are putting people back where they were before. Basically living in areas that are underwater.

I think it definitely would have been better. And this is one of the disconnects here. You know, we have been approaching the issue of dealing with terrorism as that is the ultimate disaster, and these other things, that really, it's just…

For every nation in the world, national security is first and foremost about protecting the nation.

the war on terror is not something that's just going to be won in the battlefields in Iraq, as we now see.