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I Worked With The Nato Military Committee. The Head Of The Luxembourg Armed Forces Had Equal Standing With Me, And I Had To Respect That. He Was The Leader Of The Armed Forces Of A Sovereign Country. I Had To Make Sure He Never Thought That I Was Looking Down On Them, Merely Because They Had Less Power Than We Did. With That Kind Of Approach You Can Develop Bonds Of Trust. I Tried To Do The Same Thing With My Colleagues When I Was Secretary Of State.

-Colin Powell

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I Worked With The

Colin Powell

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I Worked With The Nato Military Committee. The Head Of The Luxembourg Armed Forces Had Equal Standing With Me, And I Had To Respect That. He Was The Leader Of The Armed Forces Of A Sovereign Country. I Had To Make Sure He Never Thought That I Was Looking Down On Them, Merely Because They Had Less Power Than We Did. With That Kind Of Approach You Can Develop Bonds Of Trust. I Tried To Do The Same Thing With My Colleagues When I Was Secretary Of State.

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The Commander In The Field Is Always Right And The Rear Echelon Is Wrong, Unless Proved Otherwise. In My Experience, The People Closest To The Problems Are Often In The Best Position To See The Solutions. The Key Here Is To Empower And Not Be The Bottleneck.

Every Human Endeavor Has Leaders And Followers, And Your Job As A Leader Is To Inspire.

Whenever You Start-give It Your Best. The Opportunities Are There To Be Anything You Want To Be. But Wanting To Be Someone Isn't Enough; Dreaming About It Isn't Enough; Thinking About It Isn't Enough. You've Got To Study For It, Work For It, Fight For It With All Your Heart And Soul, Because Nobody Is Going To Hand It To You.

What We Would Be Committed To Would Be A Representative Government Where All The Iraqi People Decide Who Should Lead Their Nation, And Lead It In A Way That Keeps It Together As A Single Nation And Where All Parts Of The Nation - Shia, Sunni And Kurds - Are Able To Live Free And In Peace And Believe That Their Interests Are Represented By The Government.

No One Has Done More To Prevent Conflict - No One Has Made A Greater Sacrifice For The Cause For Peace - Than You, America's Proud Missile Submarine Family. You Stand Tall Among Our Heroes Of The Cold War.

Ladies And Gentlemen, These Are Not Assertions. These Are Facts, Corroborated By Many Sources, Some Of Them Sources Of The Intelligence Services Of Other Countries.

Intelligence Services

There Are A Lot Of Bigger Issues We Have To Be Worrying About With Respect To Our Relationship To China, And The Longer They Drag Out The Situation, The More Difficult It Is To Get This Relationship Back On Track.

Fear Is A Normal Human Emotion. It Is Not In Itself A Killer. We Can Learn To Be Aware When Fear Grips Us, And Can Train To Operate Through And In Spite Of Our Fear. If, On The Other Hand, We Don't Understand That Fear Is Normal And Has To Be Controlled And Overcome, It Will Paralyze Us And Stop Us In Our Tracks. We Will No Longer Think Clearly Or Analyze Rationally. We Prepare For It And Control It; We Never Let It Control Us. It If Does, We Cannot Lead.

It Was The Congress That Imposed 'don't Ask, Don't Tell,' It Was Certainly My Position, My Recommendation To Get Us Out Of An Even Worse Outcome That Could Have Occurred.

Recommendations

Respect For Leaders By Followers Can't Be Mandated; It Must Be Earned. It Has To Be Given To Leaders By Their Followers.

Thee Are Such Horrible Weapons. And So No Sane Leader Would Ever Want To Cross That Line To Using Nuclear Weapons. And, If You Are Not Going To Cross That Line, Then These Things Are Basically Useless.

I Think All Of The Attention Of The World, To Include The Attention Of The Arab World, Should Be On Saddam Hussein And Whether Or Not He Is Prepared To Give Up The Weapons Of Mass Destruction That He Has Used To Terrorise The Region.

Mass Destruction

The Court Is Perhaps One Of The Last Citadels Of Jealously Preserved Individualism. For The Most Part, We Function As Nine, Small Independent Law Firms.

It Was President [bill] Clinton And The United States Congress In 1998 Which Said That The Regime Has To Be Changed Because The Regime Would Not Give Up Its Weapons Of Mass Destruction. We Came Into Office In 2001 And Kept That Policy Because Saddam Hussein Had Not Changed.

Mass Destruction

Well, The Correct Answer Is He Is Not A Muslim, He’s A Christian. He’s Always Been A Christian. But The Really Right Answer Is, What If He Is? Is There Something Wrong With Being A Muslim In This Country?

I'm Absolutely Sure That There Are Weapons Of Mass Destruction There And The Evidence Will Be Forthcoming. We're Just Getting It Just Now.

Mass Destruction

When You Wrestle With A Pig, He Has Fun, And You Just End Up Dirty.

The Best Way To Create A Winning Team Is To Train Them, Give Them Everything They Need To Get The Job Done And Second, Make Sure They Know What The Job Is And What The Job Will Be. So You Connect Strategy To Resources.

The Best Method Of Overcoming Obstacles Is The Team Method

Leadership Is Solving Problems.

Problem Solving

Everybody Makes Bad Decisions. I Am Sure I Have Made My Share Of Them Over 40 Years Of Service. Or I Have Made Good Decisions And Have Been Overruled. The Real Challenge, When You Are Overruled, Is To Remember Who The Boss Is And Don't Take It Personally.

Bad News Isn't Wine. It Doesn't Improve With Age.

The Day Soldiers Stop Bringing You Their Problems Is The Day You Have Stopped Leading Them.

I Have Never Seen A Good Organization Where The Standards Weren't High.

Good Organization

We Want To Approach This In A Multilateral Way, Talking With Our Friends, Consulting With Our Security Council Colleagues In The United Nations, Hoping To Find A Way To Solve This Peacefully, But At The Same Time Recognising That Unless The Threat Of Military Force Is There, Iraq Will Not Disarm.

Let Me Blow That Up For You Again.

Almost Invariably, Whoever Doesn't Win The Argument Is Going To Be Unhappy.

We Have Gone Forth From Our Shores Repeatedly Over The Last Hundred Years And We've Done This As Recently As The Last Year In Afghanistan And Put Wonderful Young Men And Women At Risk, Many Of Whom Have Lost Their Lives, And We Have Asked For Nothing Except Enough Ground To Bury Them In, And Otherwise We Have Returned Home To Seek Our Own Lives In Peace.

The Information That The Intelligence People Used Was A Combination Of Satellite Information, Signals Intelligence, And Human Intelligence. We Are Not Sure To What Extent Saddam [hussein] Was Trying To Convey An Incorrect Picture To Us.

I Always Like To Take My Time And Examine The Two Candidates, See Not Only The Two Candidates But The Policies They Will Bring In, The People They Will Bring In, Who They Might Appoint To The Supreme Court, And Look At The Whole Range Of Issues Before Making A Decision.

We Would Like To See New Leaders Come Forward Who Would Be Accountable And Responsible, Who Would Succeed In Ending The Terror And The Violence. And It Is Up To The Palestinian People To Judge Who Those New Leaders Should Be.

Let Me Just Be Candid: My Party Is Full Of Racists. And The Real Reason A Considerable Portion Of My Party Wants President Obama Out Of The White House Has Nothing To Do With The Content Of His Character, Nothing To Do With His Competence As Commander-in-chief And President, And Everything To Do With The Color Of His Skin. And That's Despicable.

The Claims Made About Iraq's Wmd Capabilities Before The Invasion Were Inaccurate, Wrong, And In Some Cases, Deliberately Misleading.

Diplomacy Never Stops, And, With Or Without An Election, It Never Stops.

You Can't Just Have Slogans, You Can't Just Have Catchy Phrases. You Have To Have An Agenda. And I Think What The Republican Party Has To Do, If It's Going To Incorporate The Tea Party Efforts In It, Is To Come Up With An Agenda That The American People Can See, Touch, And Actually Believe In, And Something They Believe In.

I Try To Be The Same Person I Was Yesterday.

This Is About Americans Getting Off The Sidelines And Getting Onto The Playing Field, .. This Is About Each And Every One Of Us Who Have Been Blessed By The Wealth Of This Country Sharing That Blessing By Reaching Down And Reaching Back And Lifting Up Somebody In Need. That's What America Is All About. That's What Being American Is All About.

If You Are Black, If You Are Puerto Rican Or Hispanic, Be Proud Of That. But Don't Let It Become A Problem. Let It Become Somebody Else's Problem.

I Would Not Presume From This Distance, Nor Would America Presume To Say Who Should Be The Leader Of The Iraqi Nation.

You Can Never Err By Treating Everyone In The Building With Respect, Thoughtfulness, And A Kind Word. Everyone Of Our Employees Is An Essential Employee. Every One Of Them Wants To Be Viewed That Way. And If You Treat Them That Way, They Will View You That Way. They Will Not Let You Down Or Let You Fail. They Will Accomplish Whatever You Have Put In Front Of Them.

90 Percent Of My Time Is Spent On 10 Percent Of The World.

Trying To Get Everyone To Like You Is A Sign Of Mediocrity.

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I Think The American People Want To See What We Want To See, And That Is For The Iraqi People To Have A Free, Open, Fair Election, For Their Forces To Be Built Up, For Our Reconstruction Money To Be Used Well, And For Iraqi Security Forces To Take Over So We Can Start Bringing Our Troops Home.

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Decision-making Is Lonely.

Decision Making

Preferring Members Of Any One Group For No Reason Other Than Race Or Ethnic Origin Is Discrimination For Its Own Sake. This The Constitution Forbids.

Finding The Russian Scientists May Be A Problem Being That Russia Does Not Have A Social Security System, As Here In America, That Allows Us To Monitor, Track Down And Capture An American Citizen.

Security Systems

The Ties That Bind Us Are Stronger Than The Occasional Stresses That Separate Us.

The President's Personal Staff Has A Unique Role.

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I Don't Know Who All Of His Advisers Are, But I've Seen Some Of The Names And Some Of Them Are Quite Far To The Right. And Sometimes They Might Be In A Position To Make Judgments Or Recommendations To The Candidate That Should Get A Second Thought.

All Values Are Important, Everyone Who Has Ever Touched My Life In Some Way Was A Mentor For Good Or Bad. Life Is A Blend, And A Person Is A Blend Of All The Influences That Have Touched Their Lives.

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A Mirror Reflects A Man's Face, But What He Is Really Like Is Shown By The Kind Of Friends He Chooses.

Company You Keep

President's Personal Staff Has A Unique Role. They're His Intimate Personal Advisers, And The Tradition And The Precedent Has Been, Even When I Was National Security Adviser, That People In That Position Do Not Testify Before The Congress. They Talk To The Congress. They Have Meetings With The Congress.

Is There Something Wrong With Being A Muslim In This Country? The Answer Is "no." That's Not America.

Don't Just Count Your Days, Make Your Days Count.

Sometimes What My Analytical Mind Says To Me Is Not What I'll Do.

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Even The Greatest Of All Strategists Must Occasionally Take Into Account The Presence Of An Enemy.

There Are No Secrets To Success. It Is The Result Of Preparation, Hard Work, And Learning From Failure.

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Be Careful What You Choose: You May Get It.

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War Should Be The Politics Of Last Resort. And When We Go To War, We Should Have A Purpose That Our People Understand And Support.

None Of Us Can Change Our Yesterdays But All Of Us Can Change Our Tomorrows.

All Children Need A Laptop. Not A Computer, But A Human Laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies And Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles - Someone To Hold Them, Read To Them, Teach Them. Loved Ones Who Will Embrace Them And Pass On The Experience, Rituals And Knowledge Of A Hundred Previous Generations. Loved Ones Who Will Pass To The Next Generation Their Expectations Of Them, Their Hopes, And Their Dreams.

Saudi Arabia Will Have To Decide Its Own Path, And I Don't Know If It Will Decide A Path Like Any Other Nation In The Region Or If It Will Design Something That Is Unique To Saudi Arabia.

You Should Never Be So Involved With Your Position/job That When The Position Is Gone Your Entire Self Image Is Gone With It.

Don't Let Adverse Facts Stand In The Way Of A Good Decision.

Poverty Arises And Persists Where Corruption Is Endemic And Enterprise Is Stifled, Where Basic Fairness Provided By The Rule Of Law Is Absent. In Such Circumstances, Poverty Is An Assault Against Human Dignity, And In That Assault Lies The Natural Seed Of Human Anger

Let's Not Forget That Congress Bears A Lot Of Responsibility For Many Of The Problems We Have Now

My Two Jamaican Cousins ... Were Studying Engineering. 'that's Where The Money Is,' Mom Advised. ... I Was To Be An Engineering Major, Despite My Allergy To Science And Math. ... Those Who Preceded Me At Ccny Include The Polio Vaccine Discoverer, Dr. Jonas Salk ... And Eight Nobel Prize Winners. ... In Class, I Stumbled Through Math, Fumbled Through Physics, And Did Reasonably Well In, And Even Enjoyed, Geology. All I Ever Looked Forward To Was Rotc. Autobiographical Comments On His Original Reason For Going To The City College Of New York, Where He Shortly Turned To His Military Career.

There Is Only One China. Taiwan Is Not Independent. It Does Not Enjoy Sovereignty As A Nation.

The Most Important Thing I Learned Is That Soldiers Watch What Their Leaders Do. You Can Give Them Classes And Lecture Them Forever, But It Is Your Personal Example They Will Follow.

Leadership Is The Art Of Accomplishing More Than The Science Of Management Says Is Possible.

My Responsibility, Our Responsibility As Lucky Americans, Is To Try To Give Back To This Country As Much As It Has Given Us, As We Continue Our American Journey Together.

I Have Always Held The View That Decisive Force Should Be Used In Addressing A Military Conflict. The Reason Is Simple: Why Wouldn't You, If You Could?

I Don't Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life Giving Speeches.

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Time Is Passing, ... We Have To Look At The Reality Of The Situation And ... Redouble Our Efforts And Get On With It.

Another Rule I Have Is: Don't Let Your Ego Get Tied Up In A Policy Dispute. Otherwise, If Things Don't Go Your Way, You Can End Up Breaking A Relationship With Somebody With Whom You Can't Afford To Break.

Terrorism Really Flourishes In Areas Of Poverty, Despair And Hopelessness, Where People See No Future

Being Responsible Sometimes Means Pissing People Off.

Don't Take Counsel Of Your Fears Or Naysayers.

You Have To Create Circumstances Where Your First-tier Leader Knows What You Are Trying To Accomplish, Because He Is The One Who's Going To Get It Done.

The Commander In The Field Is Always Right And The Rear Echelon Is Wrong, Unless Proved Otherwise.

Once The Information Is In The 40 To 70 Range, Go With Your Gut.

Fit No Stereotypes. Don't Chase The Latest Management Fads. The Situation Dictates Which Approach Best Accomplishes The Team's Mission.

Luck Tends To Come To People Who Are Prepared.

Always Be Looking For The Opportunities, And Always Be Optimistic About What You Can Do With That Opportunity.

Being Optimistic

Always Show More Kindness Than Seems Necessary, Because The Person Receiving It Needs It More Than You Will Ever Know.

The United States Stands Willing To Work With A Transformed Palestinian Authority With New Leaders Coming To The Front.

There Are Lots Of Countries That Are Having These Kinds Of Internal Civil Wars In Other Parts Of The World And Nobody Is Talking About Intervening.

I Think The Iranians Are Clearly Determined To Have A Nuclear Program. And We Have To Assume That With A Nuclear Program They Have The Capability And The Will To Create A Nuclear Weapon.

I Have The Deepest Regret About 9/11. Sept. 11, 2001, Was One Of The Most Difficult Days I've Ever Had. I Was In Lima, Peru, And Had To Fly Back Eight Hours Not Knowing What Happened In My Own Country, Knowing Thousands Of My Fellow Citizens Had Died.

Maybe We Don't Put Our Young People In Situations Often Enough Where They're Allowed To Fail. When You Fail You Gain Experience, And With Enough Experience, You Don't Fail As Often.

Trust Is The Glue That Holds An Org Together & The Lubricant That Moves It Forward.

It Was Not The United States Who Invaded Kuwait; It Was Iraq. It Was Not The United States That Went To War With Iran; It Was Iraq. It Was Not The United States That Fired Chemical Weapons At Iran; It Was Iraq. And It Was Not The United States That Murdered Innocent Iraqi Citizens With Chemical Weapons; It Was Iraq.

Too Often We Act - Ask Our Schools To Be Truant Officers, Our Teachers To Be Truant Officers, Because We're Giving Them Children Who Have, You Know, They're Not Ready To Learn. And If They're Not Ready To Learn By The Third Grade, They Know They're Behind.

It Is Not The Role Of The United States To Dictate Change, But To Enter Into Discussions With Our Friends.

There Is No Such Thing As An Unimportant Person In An Organization.

I Would Sit And Talk To Any President Who Wishes To Talk To Me, But I'm Not Anxious To Rule It In.

As I've Thought About Gay Marriage, I Don't See Any Reason Not To Say That [couples] Should Be Able To Get Married.

Marriage Equality

We Are Not Dictating. We Are Not Telling Them [saudi Arabia] How They Should Do It Or Who They Should Look Like. We Are Their Friends. We Have Mutual Interests And We Will Help Them In Any Way That Is Possible.

Mutual Interest

I'm An American, First And Foremost, And I'm Very Proud - I Said, I've Said To My Beloved Friend And Colleague John Mccain, A Friend Of 25 Years, "john, I Love You, But I'm Not Just Going To Vote For You On The Basis Of Our Affection Or Friendship." And I've Said To Barack Obama, "i Admire You. I'll Give You All The Advice I Can. But I'm Not Going To Vote For You Just Because You're Black." We Have To Move Beyond This.

My Own Experience Is Use The Tools That Are Out There. Use The Digital World. But Never Lose Sight Of The Need To Reach Out And Talk To Other People Who Don't Share Your View. Listen To Them And See If You Can Find A Way To Compromise.

In The Army We Are Drilled Into Execution And Then Supervision, To Make Sure Everything Goes The Way You Planned It. But There Is Another Thing That We Do In The Military, That I Think Perhaps Isn't Done Enough In Corporate Life: As Soon As You Have Made That Decision, You Start On The Contingency Planning. Because There Is, As We Like To Say, A Thinking, Breathing Enemy Out There, Who Is Not Going To Let You Do Just What You Want.

Give Me The Right People And I Don’t Much Care What Organization You Give Me. Good Things Will Happen. Give Me The Wrong People And It Doesn’t Matter What You Do With The Organization. Bad Things Will Happen.

Service-learning Is A Particularly Fertile Way Of Involving Young People In Community Service, Because It Ties Helping Others To What They Are Learning In The Classroom. It Enables Them To Apply Academic Disciplines To Practical, Everyday Problems. In The Process, It Provides A Compelling Answer To The Adolescent's Perennial Question, 'why Do I Need To Learn This Stuff?

Everyday Problems

I Have Always Gone Through Public Life And Saying That With Respect To Political Candidates, I Always Measure Each Candidate Against What I Think The Country Needs At That Time, And I Will Vote For The Person I Think Who Is Most Qualified To Serve The Nation At That Time.

Each Of Us Must Work To Become A Hardheaded Realist, Or Else We Risk Wasting Our Time And Energy On Pursuing Impossible Dreams. Yet Constant Naysayers Pursue No Less Impossible Dreams. Their Fear And Cynicism Move Nothing Forward. They Kill Progress. How Many Cynics Built Empires, Great Cities, Or Powerful Corporations?

War Is Never A Happy Solution, But It May Be The Only Solution. We Must Exhaustively Explore Other Possible Solutions Before We Make The Choice For War. Every Political And Diplomatic Effort Should Be Made To Avoid War While Achieving Your Objective.

I Consider Myself A Moderate Republican. I Have Very, Very Moderate Social Views, And I'm Pretty Strong On, On Defense Matters.

I Have Found That Leadership Is Leadership Is Leadership. It Applies Whether You Are In Government Or In Corporate Life Or In Non-profit Life.

I Want To See Policies That Encourage Every American To Vote, Not Make It More Difficult To Vote.

There Can Be No Doubt That Saddam Hussein Has Biological Weapons And The Capability To Rapidly Produce More, Many More.

Pissing People Off Doesn't Mean You're Doing The Right Things, But Doing The Right Things Will Almost Inevitably Piss People Off.

Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard. Learn From The Pros, Observe Them, Seek Them Out As Mentors And Partners. But Remember That Even The Pros May Have Leveled Out In Terms Of Their Learning And Skills. Sometimes Even The Pros Can Become Complacent And Lazy.

Leaders Honor Their Core Values, But They Are Flexible In How They Execute Them.

I Think Leadership Is Both A Trained Thing And A Natural Gift.

The Person Who Will Decide Whether Or Not There Will Be War Or Peace Is Saddam Hussein, And All He Has To Do Is Give Up These Terrible Weapons That He Has Used To Kill Fellow Arabs, Fellow Muslims In That Part Of The World, And To Step Away From His Past Behaviour Which Invaded Neighbouring Countries.

Nobody Wants To Be In A Mediocre Organization. You Don't Have The Same Energy Flowing Through.

Nobody Has Ever Said In The United States Government That We Are Going To War Next Month. No Decision Has Been Made By The President Because, As He Said To The United Nations, He Wants The United Nations To Live Up To Its Responsibilities And He Wants Saddam Hussein To Cooperate.

I Have Always Tried To Do My Job In A Way That I Have People Give Me Different Points Of View.

Let It [racism] Be A Problem To Someone Else... Let It Drag Them Down. Don't Use It As An Excuse For Your Own Shortcomings.

I Have Always Admired The Linking Pin Theory Of Management Specialist Rensis Likert. It Says That In Every Organization There Are Leaders Who Link The Lower Level To The Upper Level. What Makes Somebody An Effective Link As A Leader Is That He Conveys Down Everything That Above Wants And He Conveys Up Everything That Below Needs.

Keep Looking Below Surface Appearances. Don't Shrink From Doing So Just Because You Might Not Like What You Find.

I Worked With The Nato Military Committee. The Head Of The Luxembourg Armed Forces Had Equal Standing With Me, And I Had To Respect That. He Was The Leader Of The Armed Forces Of A Sovereign Country. I Had To Make Sure He Never Thought That I Was Looking Down On Them, Merely Because They Had Less Power Than We Did. With That Kind Of Approach You Can Develop Bonds Of Trust. I Tried To Do The Same Thing With My Colleagues When I Was Secretary Of State.

That's Why The Army Sends All Its Future Generals To What We Call "charm School." As Soon As You Are A General, People Think That You Know Everything. You Think Yourself That You Have Become Omniscient And Omnipotent. Be Careful, Because People Want To Do Everything They Can To Please The General, And You Need To Guard Against This.

The Burden Is On Saddam Hussein. And Our Policy, Our National Policy - Not The Un Policy But Our National Policy - Is That The Regime Should Be Changed Until Such Time As He Demonstrates That It Is Not Necessary To Change The Regime Because The Regime Has Changed Itself.

We Need To Understand That We As Citizens And As A Government In Any Community Throughout This Country Have No More Important Obligation Than To Educate Those Who Are Going To Replace Us.

It Is Not Possible To Rule Out Anything Because We Don't Know What Will Happen.

The United States Is Not Stingy. We Are The Greatest Contributor To International Relief Efforts In The World.

Being Kind Doesn't Mean Being Soft Or A Wuss. Kindness Is Not A Sign Of Weakness. It Is A Sign Of Confidence. If You Have Developed A Reputation For Kindness And Consideration, Then Even The Most Unpleasant Decisions Will Go Down Easier Because Everyone Will Understand Why You Are Doing What You Are Doing. They Will Realize That Your Decision Must Be Necessary, And Is Not Arbitrary Or Without Empathy. As The Old Saying Puts It, 'to The World, You May Be One Person, But To One Person You May Be The World.'

Baghdad Fell On April 9, 2003, Hussein And His Regime Were Brought Down, We Declared "mission Accomplished" And Celebrated Victory . . . And Chaos Erupted. We Did Not Assert Control And Authority Over The Country, Especially Baghdad. We Did Not Bring With Us The Capacity To Impose Our Will. We Did Not Take Charge. And Iraq Did Not In A Few Weeks Magically Transform Itself Into A Stable Nation With Democratic Leaders. Instead A Raging Insurgency Engulfed The Country.

I Was Born In Harlem, Raised In The South Bronx, Went To Public School, Got Out Of Public College, Went Into The Army, And Then I Just Stuck With It.

I Happen To Hold A Bachelor Of Science Degree In Geology... And My Greatest Contribution To The Field Of Science Is That I Never Entered It.

The Long Bitter Years Of The Cold War Are Over. America And Her Allies Have Won; Totally, Decisively, And Overwhelmingly....so Thank You Sac. Job Well Done. Enjoy Your Retirement.

We View Egypt As A Good Friend Of America. We Are In Constant Touch With Them. We Provide Them Economic And Military Assistance As Part Of Our Relationship.

Failure Is A Part Of Life And You Have To Learn To Deal With It. Failure Is Something That Is Part Of Life's Cycle And It's From Failure That You Gain Life Experience.

Life Experience

Remain Calm, Be Kind.

Many Interviewers When They Come To Talk To Me, Think They're Being Progressive By Not Mentioning In Their Stories Any Longer That I'm Black. I Tell Them, 'don't Stop Now. If I Shot Somebody You'd Mention It.'

It Remains Our Policy To Change The Regime Until Such Time As The Regime Changes Itself. So Far, We Cannot Be Sure That He Is Cooperating Or He [saddam Hussein] Is Acting In A Way That Could Give Us Comfort, Or Should Give The International Community Comfort, That He Is Giving Up His Weapons Of Mass Destruction. He Continues To Give Us Statements That Suggest He Is Not In Possession Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction When We Know He Is.

Mass Destruction

You Know You're A Good Leader When People Follow You Out Of Curiosity.

I Think The American People Are Sophisticated Enough And Wise Enough To Make Judgments About The Candidates And Wade Through The Charges And Countercharges That Come With The [election 2004] Campaign.

When You Help The Poorest In The World, You Start To Move Them Up An Economic And Social Ladder, And They're Not Going To Be Moving Toward Violence Or Terrorism Of The Kind That We Worry About.

We Hope That More Assistance Will Be Available To The Nations Of The Region, To Include Egypt, On The Three Pillars That I Discussed Today: Civic Society Development, Education And Economic Development.

I Think Our Initiative With Respect To Education And Economic Development Can Work In Saudi Arabia And It Is Up To The Saudis To Decide How They Wish To Transform Their Society In Order To Make It Prepared For The Challenges Of The 21st Century.

I Am Confident That We Will Find Evidence That Makes It Clear He Had Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

I'm Sleeping Like A Baby, Too. Every Two Hours, I Wake Up, Screaming.

Don't Just Show Kindness In Passing Or To Be Courteous. Show It In Depth, Show It With Passion, And Expect Nothing In Return. Kindness Is Not Just About Being Nice; It's About Recognizing Another Human Being Who Deserves Care And Respect.

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It' Is The Slogan Of The Complacent, The Arrogant Or The Scared. It's An Excuse For Inaction, A Call To Non-arms.

So Has The Strategic Decision Been Made To Disarm Iraq Of Its Weapons Of Mass Destruction By The Leadership In Baghdad? I Think Our Judgment Has To Be Clearly Not.

Ambition And Hatred Are Enough To Bring Iraq And Al Qaeda Together.

It Takes More Courage To Send Men Into Battle Than To Fight The Battle Yourself.

With Respect To Where We Are Now, We Have A Voluntary Army. And If We Ever Go Back To Conscription I Hope That At Time It Will Be The Kind Of Conscription That Was Put In At The End Of The Vietnam War. And That Is, Everybody Is Equally Liable To Be Called To Serve The Nation In Time Of Conflict.

We Got Rid Of A Terrible Dictator. We Gave The Iraqi People An Opportunity For A New Life Under A Representative Form Of Government.

Lying Offshore, Ready To Act, The Presence Of Ships And Marines Sometimes Means Much More Than Just Having Air Power Or Ship's Fire, When It Comes To Deterring A Crisis. And The Ships And Marines May Not Have To Do Anything But Lie Offshore. It Is Hard To Lie Offshore With A C-141 Or C-130 Full Of Airborne Troops.

It's A Disgrace That We Have Millions Of People Who Are Uninsured.

Policies That Emanate From Ivory Towers Often Have An Adverse Impact On The People Out In The Field Who Are Fighting The Wars Or Bringing In The Revenues.

So Like Any Football Or Basketball Coach, You Always Always Believe You're Going To Win.

Free Speech Is Intended To Protect The Controversial And Even Outrageous Word; And Not Just Comforting Platitudes Too Mundane To Need Protection.

We Are Rather Candid With Them About The Nature Of Their Political Processes And The State Of Development Of Their Institutions, But They Are Looking To The West Because They Know That's Where Success Lies.

Our Failure Was That Our Intelligence Community Thought [saddam Hussein ] Had Stockpiled Weapons Of Mass Destruction. That Was A Mistake. There Is Fallibility In Human Intelligence And In Human Decisions.

Mass Destruction

One Thing The Military Does Far Better Than Business Is Train Its Own Leaders. I Can't Go To Ibm And Hire A Battalion Commander. They Don't Have Any.

If A Leader Doesn't Convey Passion And Intensity Then There Will Be No Passion And Intensity Within The Organization And They'll Start To Fall Down And Get Depressed.

Always Be Looking For That Which You Do Well And That Which You Love Doing, And When You Find Those Two Things Together — Man, You Got It.

Good Leaders Set Vision, Missions, And Goals. Great Leaders Inspire Every Follower At Every Level To Internalize Their Purpose, And To Understand That Their Purpose Goes Far Beyond The Mere Details Of Their Job. When Everyone Is United In Purpose, A Positive Purpose That Serves Not Only The Organization But Also, Hopefully, The World Beyond It, You Have A Winning Team.

Just Hit My 75th Birthday, I'm Feeling Great!

The Only Bipartisanship You Ever See Is When They Finally Sign A Bill And Everybody Says, 'gee, Isn't That Wonderful?'

The One Thing The Terrorists Cannot Do -- Not One Of Them, Not 10 Of Them, Not 10,000 Of Them -- They Cannot Change Who We Are.

President Reagan Fueled The Spirit Of America. His Smile, His Optimism, His Total Belief In The Ultimate Triumph Of Democracy And Freedom, And His Willingness To Act On That Belief, Helped End The Cold War And Usher In A New And Brighter Phase Of History.

No War On The Face Of The Earth Is More Destructive Than The Aids Pandemic.

Today I Can Declare My Hope And Declare It From The Bottom Of My Heart That We Will Eventually See The Time When That Number Of Nuclear Weapons Is Down To Zero And The World Is A Much Better Place.

We Now Believe It Is Appropriate For Saddam Hussein To Be Forced To Change, Either By The Threat Of War, And Therefore That Compels Him To Cooperate. If He Cooperates, Then The Basis Of Changed Regime Policy Has Shifted Because His Regime Has, In Fact, Changed Its Policy To One Of Cooperation. So If He Cooperates, Then That Is Different Than If He Does Not Cooperate.

I Don't Think Anyone Would Disagree With The Conclusion That Saddam [hussein] Was A Terrible Dictator. He Had Gassed His Own People And His Neighbors. He Had Killed Thousands Of People, And He Had Started A Couple Of Wars And Destroyed His Country.

You Should See What Our Founding Fathers Used To Say To Each Other And In The Early Part Of Our Nation. But What They Were Able To Do, Especially In Philadelphia In 1787, Four Months, They Argued About What A House Should Be, What A Senate Should Be, The Power Of The President, The Congress, The Supreme Court. And They Had To Deal With Slavery.

Some Of The Generals Are Saying, 'we're Making Progress. We Are Clearing An Area.' But You Really Don't Defeat The Taliban By Clearing An Area. They Move.

In Terms Of The Legal Matter Of Creating A Contract Between Two People That's Called Marriage, And Allowing Them To Live Together With The Protection Of Law, It Seems To Me Is The Way We Should Be Moving In This Country.

In Other Words, Don't Expect To Always Be Great. Disappointments, Failures And Setbacks Are A Normal Part Of The Lifecycle Of A Unit Or A Company And What The Leader Has To Do Is Constantly Be Up And Say 'we Have A Problem, Let's Go And Get It'.

What You’re Seeing With Occupy Wall Street And The Others Are People Who Are Unhappy And They’re Directing Their Unhappiness Now Toward Wall Street And Toward Those They Think Are Doing Too Well In Our Society.

Endeavors Succeed Or Fail Because Of The People Involved.

We Can Seldom Get Our Children To Do What We Tell Them, But They Almost Never Fail To Imitate Us.

Nobody Is Ready To Leave Iraq To Be Interviewed.

One Of The Fondest Expressions Around Is That We Can't Be The World's Policeman. But Guess Who Gets Called When Suddenly Someone Needs A Cop.

Every Organization Needs To Be Introspective, Transparent, And Honest With Itself. This Only Works If Everyone Is Unified On The Goals And Purposes Of The Organization And There Is Trust Within The Team. High-performing, Successful Organizations Build Cultures Of Introspection And Trust And Never Lose Sight Of Their Purpose.

It Is Good If Your Enemy Underestimates You. The Dumber They Think You Are The More Surprised They Are When You Kill Them.

Surround Yourself With People Who Take Their Work Seriously, But Not Themselves, Those Who Work Hard And Play Hard.

It Is The Job Of Leaders To Eliminate Uncertainty.

The United States Is Still Seen As The Leader At The World That Wants To Be Free.

You Can't Get It All Done Yourself. The Best Leaders Are Not Afraid Of Picking People Who Are Better Than They Are And Who May One Day Replace Them.

Being In Charge Sometimes Means Making People Mad. Some Days You Have To Overrule Even The Best Advice, Because You Think It Is Not Right.

I Think Whether You're Having Setbacks Or Not, The Role Of A Leader Is To Always Display A Winning Attitude.

It Isn’t Enough Just To Scream At The Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations. We Need Our Political System To Start Reflecting This Anger Back Into, 'how Do We Fix It? How Do We Get The Economy Going Again?'

I Think That Military, Corporate, And Non-political Organizations Are Pretty Much Similar.

Get Mad, Then Get Over It.

It's Not Just A Matter Of Whether You Support Obama Or Romney. It's Who They Have Coming With Them. I Always Keep My Powder Dry, As They Say In The Military.

Perpetual Optimism Is A Force Multiplier. I Am Talking About A Gung-ho Attitude That Says 'we Can Change Things Here, We Can Achieve Awesome Goals, We Can Be The Best. 'spare Me The Grim Litany Of The 'realist;' Give Me The Unrealistic Aspirations Of The Optimist Any Day.

You Need To Learn What People Have Done, But You Need To Learn Where They Have Failed... Usually When They Fail It Is In The Execution.

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