Stephen Flynn

When we say we can't afford it, we are the wealthiest nation in the world. We can't afford to have broken infrastructure.

It's very clear that we have to fix the bridges and keep them adequately maintained because they really are models of engineering in many cases, but when they fail, they really fail.

We are absolutely not doing what needs to be done to make sure our bridges are adequately maintained, are safe.

We need to mobilize civil society, we need to mobilize intellectual capital we have in this country to address this very urgent problem.

The systems are breaking down. So the stress means we're going to have disruption and what clearly will happen here, is we all need to be better prepared.

We're saying we're at war, but we're not taking basic preventative measures to safeguard things that are critical.

This is a war we would all have to be a part of.

What we hope we will take away from this latest tragedy is a willingness to reexamine how we have been living and how we have been operating.

We keep pushing the envelope. We put houses, we put development right up next to places that we know are going to flood.

The next president is going to have to address this issue. It makes no economic sense to have frail infrastructure. Mother Nature is going to show that time and again.

We've been treating it a bit like somebody who has inherited our grandparent's mansion and doesn't do the upkeep.

It makes no economic sense to have frail infrastructure.

The next president is going to have to address this issue.

Americans need to step back and they should be asking, frankly, these presidential candidates, you know, what gives here? We're the wealthiest country in the world. Why are things falling apart? Why are the lights going out?

We need to go back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was a commander in chief who really put infrastructure at the forefront.

We're the wealthiest country in the world. Why are things falling apart? Why are the lights going out?

These should be wake-up calls for Americans, that we can't keep taking for granted our infrastructure, nor that we can live just anywhere we want.

The idea that we can't afford to invest in our infrastructure, I don't know where it got into that thinking.

We really need to come back to that thinking, not just because we need this stuff for its safety. But at the end of the day, our enemies strike us here in part, because they think we're really vulnerable.

The fact is, as a more resilient nation, as a more safe nation, as one where our civil society is fully engaged in the process of thinking through and preparing for bad things, we will be a stronger nation.

For every nation in the world, national security is first and foremost about protecting the nation. And if have you any power left over, protecting your interests beyond your shores. That's every nation, but the United States that's dealt…

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 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.