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" 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. "

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" There's an art to asking questions. Briefings are valuable but normally communicate primarily what the subordinate leader wants you to know, and often the picture they provide is incomplete. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Leader

Picture

Know

" 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

Military

Doing

Way

" I think every war certainly wears on national will and national patience, particularly a counterinsurgency. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

War

Think

Patience

" What I'm trying to do is teach people how to actually get individuals in organizations to do the kinds of things to make a difference. It starts with not just studying the mechanics but really understanding how people operate. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Make A Difference

Understanding

People

" Tensions and violence in cities across America are reminders of how quickly communities can erupt with an absence of social trust. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Violence

Trust

How

" 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

" Defeat the Taliban. Secure the population. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Taliban

Secure

Population

" 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

Corrupt

Bad

Power

" 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

" 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

" 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

Looking

Out

Outside

" President Obama had voiced strong support for the effort in Afghanistan during his campaign, pledging to add two brigades, which he did. But since the inauguration... the administration had signaled that the U.S. commitment needed careful assessment, and we needed to recalibrate the strategy and objectives. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Effort

Support

Strong

" If we want to be members of the world community, we need to think that way. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Think

World

Community

" I resolved to try to steer clear of politics. That wasn't easy. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Try

Politics

Easy

" 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

Years

First Child

Child

" 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

" We need a strong civil society where the connection between different people and groups is firm and vibrant, not brittle and divided. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Connection

Strong

Society

" If you sit down with British officers or British senior NCOs, they understand the sweep of history. They know the history of British forces not just in Afghanistan but the history of British successful counter-insurgencies - Northern Ireland, Malaysia. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

You

Successful

Down

" The number of people in America killed by firearms is extraordinary compared to other nations, and I don't think we're a bloodthirsty country. We need to look at everything we can do to safeguard our people. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Think

People

Need

" 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 came to believe that a leader isn't good because they're right; they're good because they're willing to learn and to trust. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Learn

Trust

Leader

" Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Professional

Integrity

Honor

" My dad was always the soldier I wanted to be. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Always

Soldier

Wanted

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

Stanley A. McChrystal

Broadcasting

Stronger

Yes

" There is no avoiding the realities of the information age. Its effects manifest differently in different sectors, but the drivers of speed and interdependence will impact us all. Organizations that continue to use 20th-century tools in today's complex environment do so at their own peril. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Today

Age

Environment

" Industrial technologies that allowed for increased mechanization in 19th-century armed forces also spurred Frederick Winslow Taylor to develop his 'Scientific Management' doctrine in Philadelphia steel mills. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Forces

Steel

Philadelphia

" Caution and cynicism are safe, but soldiers don't want to follow cautious cynics. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Soldiers

Want

" 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

" With my resignation, I... left unfulfilled commitments I made to many comrades in the fight, commitments I hold sacred. My service did not end as I would have wished. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

End

Resignation

Left

" I go back and think of President Kennedy, who had a military service background, but he comes into the presidency, and he's faced with a decision on the Bay of Pigs, with the C.I.A. and the military giving him data, and it turns out very badly. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Giving

Service

Data