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" We should get to the business of providing at least one million opportunities each year for young Americans to spend a service year with peers who are different from them - by race, ethnicity, income, politics and religious belief. "

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" 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

" Wars often begin with enthusiastic vigor but typically settle into costly, dirty business characterized for soldiers by fear, frustration, and loneliness. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Loneliness

Frustration

Business

" 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

Shaving

Soldier

Long

" 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

Small

Say

People

" 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

" 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

" Military leaders, many of whom were students of counterinsurgency, recognized the dangers of an incremental escalation and the historical lesson that 'trailing' an insurgency typically condemned counterinsurgents to failure. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Military

Lesson

Failure

" Christmases with Polish and Romanian troops, including religious ceremonies in crude bunkers and huts, were deeply spiritual experiences. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Spiritual

Experiences

Crude

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

Stanley A. McChrystal

Professional

Integrity

Honor

" We need to defend against weaknesses within and enemies without, using the tools of civil society and hard power. We don't have to pick one over the other. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Need

Tools

Hard

" 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

" 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

Doing

Army

Bond

" I want the American people to understand, we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Want

American

Defeat

" 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

Help

Need

Leader

" 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

" How we present ourselves matters a lot, and that's every American, not just at the senior levels. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

American

Senior

Matters

" 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

Never

World

Seen

" 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

Build

Time

Trust

" Public television works hard to engage young learners and build the skills needed for a jump-start on life. We need our youngest to be curious, resilient and empathetic, and prepared for the jobs of the future. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Future

Television

Need

" Many leaders are tempted to lead like a chess master, striving to control every move, when they should be leading like gardeners, creating and maintaining a viable ecosystem in which the organization operates. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Organization

Control

Creating

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

Stanley A. McChrystal

Only

You

Forever

" Strength is leading when you just don't want to lead. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Leading

Lead

Just

" 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

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

Stanley A. McChrystal

Business

Evolution

History

" 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 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

" 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

" If every soldier is authorized to make one mistake, then we lose the war. "

Stanley A. McChrystal

Then

Lose

Make

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

Stanley A. McChrystal

Think

World

Community

" 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