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" If you talk to a British officer or NCO about the strategic objectives of the end state, you'll often get a spirited discussion that's very well informed. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

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" The challenge that we faced with the arrival of the Obama administration is, they didn't really have time to build trust before they had to make big, difficult decisions. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I spent a career carrying typically either an M16 or an M4 Carbine. An M4 Carbine fires a .223 caliber round, which is 5.56 mm at about 3000 feet per second. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I don't miss the bureaucracy of being in the Army. But I still love the relationships you can build. And it doesn't have to be in military service - it can be anything you're doing with someone that matters. You develop a bond. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" In June 2010, after more than 38 years in uniform, in the midst of commanding a 46-nation coalition in a complex war in Afghanistan, my world changed suddenly - and profoundly. An article in 'Rolling Stone' magazine depicting me, and people I admired, in a manner that felt as unfamiliar as it was unfair, ignited a firestorm. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Trust is an amazing commodity. The Afghan people often talk to me about having to develop trust in America, because they believe that we deserted them in 1990 and 1991. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I think life is hard at the combat outposts, and anything that distracts us from supporting them, in my mind, is something that we shouldn't do. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" As combat infantrymen and special operators, we received thousands of hours of firearms training. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Anyone in a position of power is either corrupt or assumed to be corrupt, and the assumption of corruption is as bad as the reality of it. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" How Americans restore trust may be an existential question for their country, then, but it's ultimately a practical one: What U.S. society needs to answer it in the coming years aren't lamentations but practical measures, especially among the emerging generations that will define America's future. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Any war or conflict you enter where you are likely to lose more Americans and expend more treasure is something worthy of very detailed debate. There ought to be a lot of skepticism. There ought to be a lot of discussion. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" My very identity as a soldier came to an abrupt end. I'd been soldiering as long as I'd been shaving. Suddenly I'd been told I could no longer soldier, and it felt as though no one really cared if I ever shaved again. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" The basic DNA we've got to implant in leaders now is adaptability: not to get wedded to the solution to a particular problem, because not only the problem but the solution changes day to day. Creating people who are hardwired for that is going to be our challenge for the future. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Public broadcasting makes our nation smarter, stronger and, yes, safer. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" You can get knocked down, and it hurts and it leaves scars. But if you're a leader, the people you've counted on will help you up. And if you're a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" A year of service has the power to bring young people together from different races, ethnicities, incomes, faiths, and political backgrounds to work on pressing problems facing U.S. society today. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" We want to make the insurgents come to us. Make them be the aggressors. What I want to do is get on the inside looking out - instead of being on the outside looking in. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I had known Colonel Charlie Flynn since he was a lieutenant 23 years earlier, and I remembered how his first child, Molly, had been born while Charlie was deployed to the first Gulf War. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Throughout history, the organizational evolution of the military has been inextricably linked with that of the business world. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world. The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes... is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who've never seen one or seen the effects of one. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" The military likes to figure out how to do something, put it in a manual or an operating procedure, and perfect doing it, and have everyone do it the same way. I don't like that. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Change is painful, and people are always reticent to accept a lot of pain. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I'm not good at eating small meals. Some people can sit down and be very disciplined. When I sit down at a meal, I sort of eat everything I can reach. I know medical people say that's exactly the wrong formula, but I've made it this far. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I think with the beginning of any political administration, you have to build trust, and it takes time. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" By nature, I tended to trust people and was typically open and transparent... But such transparency would go astray when others saw us out of context or when I gave trust to those few who were unworthy of it. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" As our leaders in Washington confront tough decisions about our budget priorities, I urge them to continue federal funding for public broadcasting. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" There is only one Army in which you serve. When that identity is gone, it is gone forever. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Like leaders in many walks of life, my business has been to serve with, and for, others. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" Our bureaucracy had excelled at compartmentalizing intelligence - we had a 'need to know' system - but by 2004, it was impossible to foresee what elements of our organization would and would not need to know a given piece of information. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" You're going to find out who your friends are. Anything that happens in your life is one of those challenges. It may not be at the level of celebrity, but everybody's going to travel that road. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

" I was raised with traditional stories of leadership: Robert E. Lee, John Buford at Gettysburg. And I also was raised with personal examples of leadership. This was my father in Vietnam. And I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal, or abandon their comrades. "

Stanley A. McChrystal