Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" I'm a believer in the Afghan people, so I support an increase in forces there. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Believer
Support
People
Related Quotes:
" One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Great
Facts
America
" 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
Organization
Impossible
Intelligence
" Leadership contains certain elements of good management, but it requires that you inspire, that you build durable trust. For an organization to be not just good but to win, leadership means evoking participation larger than the job description, commitment deeper than any job contract's wording. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Good
Commitment
Job
" Public broadcasting makes our nation smarter, stronger and, yes, safer. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Broadcasting
Stronger
Yes
" 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
Lie
Brave
Father
" My dad was always the soldier I wanted to be. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Always
Soldier
Wanted
" Public, noncommercial broadcasting is also giving kids social-emotional skills like persistence and self-control that are fundamental to success in school, not to mention in the military, the institution where I spent most of my career. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
School
Giving
Persistence
" I can't sculpt. But if I were a sculptor, as you start to get something that actually looks like what you want, then it starts to be fun. That's the way I find writing. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Find
You
Writing
" I think my biggest achievement was being part of a team of outstanding, entrepreneurial military leaders and civilians who helped change the way in which America fights by transforming a global special operations task force - Task Force 714 - that I commanded. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Change
Achievement
Way
" Mike Hall was my old friend and, more important, the finest soldier I'd ever known. After over 30 years of service and then 18 months at a good civilian job, a phone call had brought the retired command sergeant major back on active duty to become the senior enlisted adviser of all international forces in Afghanistan. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Phone
Back
Friend
" In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Again
Time
My Life
" If every soldier is authorized to make one mistake, then we lose the war. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Then
Lose
Make
" In combat operations in places like Afghanistan, we often confronted the specter of dangerous people with powerful weapons who were a threat to their community and to our soldiers. Our aim was to quickly determine who in that community was a legitimate actor who could be trusted with a firearm and who was not. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Community
Powerful
People
" Americans enjoy the exciting, cinematic vision of a squad of muscle-bound Goliath boasting Olympian speed, strength, and precision - a group whose collective success is the inevitable consequence of the individual strengths of its members and the masterful planning of a visionary commander. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Vision
Strength
Success
" How we present ourselves matters a lot, and that's every American, not just at the senior levels. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
American
Senior
Matters
" When I arrived in the summer of 2009 to command the war in Afghanistan, I entered an effort that was failing. Many Afghans, some ISAF coalition members, and much of the American public had lost confidence in both the trajectory of the war and our ability to correct it. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
American
Effort
Lost
" Christmases with Polish and Romanian troops, including religious ceremonies in crude bunkers and huts, were deeply spiritual experiences. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Spiritual
Experiences
Crude
" The eight years of war since 9/11 had meant several Christmases away from home for most of these men. For soldiers at war, there's comforting continuity in the traditions and inevitability of Christmas. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
War
Christmas
Home
" If who you were was entirely based upon the position you were in or the headlines you got in the newspaper, or you had essentially subcontracted out your self-worth to the judgments of others, then you're going to be like tumbleweed. You're going to be blown. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Like
Newspaper
Others
" What I really want are students who want to partner with other people, to be part of an organization and to influence people so that they can accomplish things that the organization would not have accomplished otherwise. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
People
Influence
Partner
" Over my career, I'd watched senior leader visits have unintended negative consequences. Typically, schedules were unrealistically overloaded and were modified during the visit to cancel parts of the plan. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Plan
Leader
Consequences
" 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
Trust
Amazing
Believe
" If we are visiting Afghans, typically the Afghan governor, district or provincial governor, we see he doesn't wear body armor, and yet we're walking through his streets. I'm his guest. I think that that's important that I send a message that I trust him and I don't think I am more valuable than I think he is. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
See
Walking
Trust
" 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
You
Discussion
Well
" 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
America
Trust
Society
" I said if you want me to go back to Afghanistan and work, I'm happy to do that. If you think accepting my resignation is best for the cause and for the nation, then I have no complaint with that. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Think
You
Work
" 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
Think
Mind
Life Is Hard
" In our society, I see public media as a lever. It pushes people by elevating them and their sights. It brings them into more thinking and understanding, and it brings us together. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
See
Together
Society
" When I was a lieutenant in Special Forces many many years ago, I thought I was getting fat. And I started running, and I started running distance, which I enjoyed. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Thought
Special
Running
" We are a nation of innovators and problem-solvers who sparked revolutions in democratic government, civil rights, communications, flight, rural electrification and technology. We are a country defined by ideals now in need of rescue. "
Stanley A. McChrystal
Need
Government
Flight