• There is a fundamental mismatch between the post 9/11 world and the current structure of the U.S. military.
Michèle A. Flournoy

• We need to build a core of civilian professionals to conduct stability operations. And, we need to repair civilian-military relations.
Michèle A. Flournoy

• The military, by default, is doing things that other agencies should be doing.
Lieutenant General Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (Ret.)

• Today, our intelligence assets are as likely to be a public health official or a cop on the street, as an FBI or CIA agent.
James Steinberg

• The distinction between domestic and foreign intelligence no longer makes any sense.
James Steinberg

• Institutions will be needed to maintain this homeland security effort, so that it is not dependent on one particular administration or another.
Rand Beers

• Foreign policy is the framework, the structural housing, for our future.
Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

• America must redefine and strengthen its historic alliances.
Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

• "Coalitions of the Willing" are not, by themselves, the building blocks of a stable world.
Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

• The effort to fight terrorism truly isn't fought inside Washington, it is fought by state and local first responders.
Governor Mark Warner (D-VA)

• In the first phase (of the war on terrorism), dramatic progress has been made. We are seeing resources move through the states, down to the local level. The public, to a degree, is aware of this, but the first phase is receding.
Governor Mark Warner (D-VA)

• We need economic security, new levels of public-private partnerships, a balance between homeland security and civil liberties, and collaboration among all levels of government.
Governor Mark Warner (D-VA)

• The largest and busiest ports in the nation--Los Angeles and Long Beach, received less than $3 million in grants, when they requested $65 million.
Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA)

• We can collect vital information without compromising civil liberties.
Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA)

• We are still missing a single, integrated homeland security strategy.
Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA)

• We've been spending money on homeland security since 1996, but we do not have a strategy.
Randall Larsen

• How can we as a nation be prepared for a national emergency with a health care system that doesn't work and with 50 million uninsured?
Randall Larsen

• What states are not talking about is how to develop regional partnerships for homeland security.
Mayor Ed Garza (San Antonio)

• We are seeing a new kind of terrorism, in which the goal is not a political one, but to kill large numbers of people.
Margaret A. Hamburg

• The day after a nuclear or other attack, we will ask ourselves, what is it that we wished we had done?
Margaret A. Hamburg

• Temporary measures enacted after 9/11 have become part of the permanent legal regime.
Juliette Kayyem

• What we are doing in Iraq is not working....usually when people are in a hole, they stop digging. This administration asks for a larger shovel.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• Now is the time to honor our democratic values: the rule of law, transparency, accountability, and informed consent.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• Pre emptive action is an option, not a doctrine. And it should not be an organizing principle for America's foreign policy.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• The Bush administration has exhibited a petulant exercise of ideology. The treatment of allies has ranged from dismissive to indifferent and our aggressive unilateralism alienates allies.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• By withholding information from the 9/11 Commission and the American public, the administration unnecessarily raises the suspicion that they have something to hide. Americans will be more likely to accept what is "going right" in Iraq, if the administration is honest about what is "going wrong."
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• The Bush administration is creating a level of mistrust from which we will reap the consequences for years to come.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• We can't just reach the habits of democracy, but we must model the behaviors of democracy.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)

• You can argue that the Homeland Security Department is doing a lot about the worst people, but it is not doing very much about the worst weapons.
Ashton Carter

• We have the tools, and maybe the resolve, to address some of the worst nuclear proliferation problem we face.
Rose Gottemoeller

• We aren't exercising leadership. The biggest obstacle to genuine progress in chemical and biological non proliferation is us.
Amy Smithson

• Our credibility and our intelligence are at an all time low.
Wendy Sherman

• One of the most profound and underreported decisions was that of the Congress to start research, and potentially development, of small nuclear weapons....we risk starting a new arms race around the world.
Wendy Sherman

• If a conventional airplane can be used as a weapon of destruction, how much worse would nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons be?
Wendy Sherman

• We don't need to solve all problems with North Korea, just one problem: nuclear weapons. That in and of itself is diplomacy.
Ashton B. Carter

• We can't develop sensible policy in North Korea, without having South Korea with us.
William J. Perry

• In Bosnia, we achieved our objective at an acceptable cost....that is nationbuilding...It isn't perfect, but it worked. In Afghanistan, the administration did the exact opposite of nationbuilding. And, in Iraq, you cannot do nationbuilding with a country at war it is impossible.
Richard Holbrooke

• Globalization and U.S. hegenmony are deeply humiliating to Muslims.
Jessica Stern

• I left the administration deeply concerned that the administration does not have, and cannot develop and sustain a real strategy for prosecuting the war on terrorism.
Flynt Leverett

• This administratoin does not do real diplomacy.
Flynt Leverett

• You cannot take any approach other than the multilateral approach.
Major General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.)

• In Nation Building, everything is related to everything....and it's all political.
Major General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.)

• The Bush Administration has made preemptive action its guiding doctrine....preemptive action is a useful tool, but one to be used sparingly. By engaging preemptive action, the U.S. sets a standard that allows all countries to do the same.
Ivo H. Daalder

• We need preventive action and innovative responses....sustained nation building, targeted aid, forwardthinking education and health policies, and targeted counterterrorism activities.
Susan E. Rice

• The U.S. strategy of "shock and awe" simply shows our limits and vulnerability.
Clyde Prestowitz

• The lost opportunity of 9/11 is that the President did not rise to the position of educator.
Samuel R. Berger

• The losses we suffered on 9/11 as tragic as they were have been magnified by the losses we've suffered since...the loss of allied support; the loss of moral authority; the loss of respect, admiration, and esteem especially in the Islamic world.
General Wesley K. Clark, USA (Ret.)

• Going forward, we'll need new ideas....First, America needs to be guided again by our founding ideal of inclusiveness, the core ingredient of any democracy. Second, we should be working to strengthen and use international institutions, beginning with the United Nations and NATO. The third principle is to ensure our armed forces retain the edge over any potential adversary.
General Wesley K. Clark, USA (Ret.)