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When We Have Dealt With Bin Laden And His Network We Will Then Broaden The Campaign To Go After Other Terrorists All Around The World.

-Colin Powell

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When We Have Dealt

Colin Powell

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When We Have Dealt With Bin Laden And His Network We Will Then Broaden The Campaign To Go After Other Terrorists All Around The World.

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

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

It's Really Not A Number I'm Terribly Interested In.

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.

Bahrain Is Moving At One Pace, Morocco Another, Qatar At Another, Kuwait At Yet Another. And We Are There To Assist Our Friends.

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

Experts Often Possess More Data Than Judgment.

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

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

Trust Is The Essence Of Leadership.

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

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.

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.

Organization Doesn't Really Accomplish Anything. Plans Don't Accomplish Anything, Either. Theories Of Management Don't Much Matter. Endeavors Succeed Or Fail Because Of The People Involved. Only By Attracting The Best People Will You Accomplish Great Deeds.

Always Find Different Ways To Accomplish The Mission. Then Run A Counter-analysis And List The Advantages And Disadvantages. When You Have Done That, You Are Ready To Make A Decision.

The Less You Associate With Some People, The More Your Life Will Improve. Any Time You Tolerate Mediocrity In Others, It Increases Your Mediocrity. An Important Attribute In Successful People Is Their Impatience With Negative Thinking And Negative Acting People.

I Think We Can Make A Contribution To Their [saudi Arabia] Thinking As They Decide How They Should Deal With The Economic And Social Challenges That They Are Facing.

Economy's Got To Get Moving, We've Got To Get The Unemployment Rate Down. That May Be The Defining Issue Of The Campaign.

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

If You Are Going To Achieve Excellence In Big Things, You Develop The Habit In Little Matters. Excellence Is Not An Exception, It Is A Prevailing Attitude.

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.

I Served 40 Years In Government, And I'm Not Looking Forward To A Position Or An Assignment. Of Course, I Have Always Said If A President Asks You To Do Something, You Have To Consider It. But I Am In No Way Interested In Returning To Government. But I, Of Course, Would Sit And Talk To Any President Who Wishes To Talk To Me.

The Media Only Report Stupid Or Careless Answers, Not Stupid Or Unfair Questions.

Don't Let Your Ego Get Too Close To Your Position, So That If Your Position Gets Shot Down, Your Ego Doesn't Go With It.

Have A Vision. Be Demanding.

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

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

I've Voted For Republicans Who Were Strong On Defense, Who Believed In A Free And Open Economy But Who Also Understood That There's A Place For Government In Our Lives, That Government Has A Responsibility To Those Of Our Citizens Who Are In Need And Those Of Our Citizens Who Are Needy Of Health Care.

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.

Terrorism Threat Is Serious, And Not Just To American Interests. The Assaults In Russia Against Two Airliners, Bringing Them Out Of The Sky, And Against A Subway Station, And Then That Horrible Scene At The School In Beslan. This Kind Of Terrorist Activity No One Is Immune From It. And So It Suggests That We Have To Do Even More Together To Make Sure The Civilized Worlds Join Together In The War Against Terrorism.

An Organization That Is Not Facing Up To People Who Are Not Getting The Job Done, Is Going To Have Difficulties.

We All Hoped In 2001 That We Could Put In Place An Afghan Government Under President Karzai That Would Be Able To Control The Country, Make Sure Al-qaeda Didn't Come Back, And Make Sure The Taliban Wasn't Resurging. It Didn't Work Out.

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.

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.

Being Responsible Sometimes Means Pissing People Off.

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

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.

I Strongly Believe That At This Point In America's History, We Need A President That Will Not Just Continue, Even With A New Face And With Some Changes And With Some Maverick Aspects, Who Will Not Just Continue, Basically, The Policies We Have Been Following In Recent Years. I Think We Need A Transformational Figure. I Think We Need A President Who Is A Generational Change.

You Have Achieved Excellence As A Leader When People Will Follow You Anywhere If Only Out Of Curiosity.

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

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.

Use The Formula P=40 To 70, In Which P Stands For The Probability Of Success And The Numbers Indicate The Percentage Of Information Acquired. Once The Information Is In The 40 To 70 Range, Go With Your Gut.

Don't Be Afraid To Challenge The Pros, Even In Their Own Backyard.

Have A Sense Of Humor To Break The Tension In Times Of Great Toil.

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.

Leadership Is Solving Problems. The Day Soldiers Stop Bringing You Their Problems Is The Day You Have Stopped Leading Them. They Have Either Lost Confidence That You Can Help Or Concluded You Do Not Care. Either Case Is A Failure Of Leadership.

Effective Leaders Are Made, Not Born. They Learn From Trial And Error, And From Experience.

Trial And Error

One Of The Most Worrisome Things That Emerges From The Thick Intelligence File We Have On Iraq's Biological Weapons Is The Existence Of Mobile Production Facilities Used To Make Biological Agents.

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

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

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.

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.

The United States Is Not Looking For A Way To Launch War.

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.

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

But Just As They Did In Philadelphia When They Were Writing The Constitution, Sooner Or Later, You've Got To Compromise. You've Got To Start Making The Compromises That Arrive At A Consensus And Move The Country Forward.

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.

You Can Be Sure That The American Spirit Will Prevail Over This Tragedy.

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.

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

I Want To Scare The Hell Out Of The Rest Of The World.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

A Sense Of Shame Is Not A Bad Moral Compass.

I Try To Be The Same Person I Was Yesterday.

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.

No Matter How Significant Or Life-changing Your Greatest Hit Or Miss Might Be, Neither Even Begins To Define Who You Are. Each Of Us Is A Product Of All Our Experiences And All Our Interactions With Other People. To Cite Calculus, We Are The Area Under The Curve.

Interaction With Others

In The Army, All Combat Officers Are Taught The "estimate Of The Situation": When You Are Faced With A Problem - Take That Hill, Or In Business Maybe Grow Your Market Share - The First Thing You Do Is To Make An Analysis Of Your Environment.

Nobody Is Ready To Leave Iraq To Be Interviewed.

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

I Don't Know That There Is Much The United States Can Do Except Work With The International Community.

Always Focus On The Front Windshield And Not The Review Mirror.

It Is The Job Of Leaders To Eliminate Uncertainty.

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.

How Often Have We Seen Politicians Take A Principle Position Only To Give It Up Three Days Later? That Is What Makes Democracy So Fascinating.

We Knew That Al-qaida Was A Threat To Our Country. We Knew That The Clinton Administration Understood This And Was Working Against Al-qaida We Did Not Ignore Al-qaida. We Spent A Lot Of Our Time Thinking About Terrorism, What Should We Do About It.

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

Good Organization

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

He (saddam Hussein) Has Not Developed Any Significant Capability With Respect To Weapons Of Mass Destruction. He Is Unable To Project Conventional Power Against His Neighbours.

Mass Destruction

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

For All The Hardship, I Was Still Excited To Be On The Trail, Testing My Endurance, Feeling Especially Alive As Strength And Fatigue Flowed Alternately Through My Limbs.

The Purposes Of The United States Should Not Be Doubted. The Security Council Resolutions Will Be Enforced - The Just Demands Of Peace And Security Will Be Met - Or Action Will Be Unavoidable. And A Regime That Has Lost Its Legitimacy Will Also Lose Its Power.

Never Receive Counsel From Unproductive People. Never Discuss Your Problems With Someone Incapable Of Contributing To The Solution, Because Those Who Never Succeed Themselves Are Always First To Tell You How. Not Everyone Has A Right To Speak Into Your Life. You Are Certain To Get The Worst Of The Bargain When You Exchange Ideas With The Wrong Person. Don't Follow Anyone Who's Not Going Anywhere.

Remain Calm, Be Kind.

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.

Every Organization Should Tolerate Rebels Who Tell The Emperor He Has No Clothes

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.

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.

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.

Actually, There Is No More Important Task For A Leader Than To Pick People. To Make Sure You Have The Very Best People Working For You.

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.

Giving Back Involves A Certain Amount Of Giving Up.

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

Great Leaders Are Those Who Are Able To Look Reality In The Face, However Painful It May Be, And Deal With 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.

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.

Only When You Have Got A Clear Statement Of What You Want To Achieve, Do You Ask Yourself How You Are Going To Achieve It. In The Military We Are Taught Never To Go For A Single Answer, No Matter How Obvious That Might Be.

As A Leader You Set The Tone For Your Entire Team. Communicate Your Vision.

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

Treat People Kindly. When You Are Kind To Somebody And I Don't Mean Necessarily "buddy-buddy", Just Show Kindness And Consideration. Show That People Are Worthy And You Respect Them And You Are Glad They're With You.

Our Model Of Politics Is One That It Is Inclusive Of All Members Of The Society; All Should Be Represented. That Is The Nature Of Our Democracy.

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.

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.

We Are Not Going To Dwell On Those Things That Divide Us. We Are Going To Rejoice In Those Things That Keep Us Together To Make This A Better Country - To Reach Down And Back To Touch Every Young Person In Need!

Organization Charts And Fancy Titles Count For Next To Nothing.

It Is The Us Government's Desire For The Iraqi People To Lead Themselves, Not For Any Outside Power To Be The Leadership For Iraq In The Future. There May Be Some Transition Period Where The International Community Would Have To Help The Iraqi People Put In Place A Representative Government. But That Is The Goal, Not For The United States, Or Any Other Nation, For That Matter, Who Might Be In Such A Coalition, If One Is Formed, To Serve As The Leader Of The Iraqi Nation.

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.

If You Get The Dirty End Of The Stick, Sharpen It And Turn It Into A Useful Tool.

Always Do Your Best. Somebody Is Watching You.

The Healthiest Competition Occurs When Average People Win By Putting Above Average Effort.

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

The Freedom To Do Your Best Means Nothing Unless You Are Willing To Do Your Best.

Our Strategy In Going After This Army Is Very Simple. First We Are Going To Cut It Off, And Then We Are Going To Kill It.

In The Military, We Are Also Taught To Only Use One Third Of The Available Decision-making Time, So That Our Subordinates Have Time To Go Through Their Own Decision Processes When They Learn What We Want Them To Do.

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.

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

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

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.

Don't Take Counsel Of Your Fears Or Naysayers.

Never Neglect Details. When Everyone's Mind Is Dulled Or Distracted The Leader Must Be Doubly Vigilant.

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.

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

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.

It Is Not Our Place To Decide Who Should Lead The Iraqi People. If Saddam [hussein] Leaves Or Has To Be Forced Out Of Power And A New Regime Brought In, A New Leadership Brought In, I Am Confident It Will Be Some Combination Of People Inside The Country And Outside The Country.

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.

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.

I Recommended To The President [george Bush] That Our Focus Had To Be On Al-qaida, The Taliban And Afghanistan. Those Were The Ones Who Attacked The United States Of America On 9/11.

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.

With Respect To Our Friends In The [iraq] Region, Each Has Its Own System, Each Will Have To Make Its Own Judgment As To Whether It Will Change, How Fast It Will Change, And We Hope That We Can Help Influence Them As To How Change Comes About And What Change Might Be Better For Them Than Other Forms Of Change.

In The Military We Also Learn Principles Of War Which Also Work In A Corporate Setting: How Do You Concentrate As Much Of Your Force As Possible On A Critical Point And Take A Risk Elsewhere? In Business That Translates Into Focusing Your Investment On Marketing, Sales, Or R&d, Whichever Will Give You The Greatest Return.

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

Leadership Is All About People … And Getting The Most Out Of People.

Over The Years, The United States Has Sent Many Of Its Fine Young Men And Women Into Great Peril To Fight For Freedom Beyond Our Borders. The Only Amount Of Land We Have Ever Asked For In Return Is Enough To Bury Those That Did Not Return.

It's Nice To Say Let's Be Bipartisan. But We're A Partisan Nation. We Were Raised As A Partisan Nation.

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

When You Decide To Get Involved In A Military Operation In A Place Like Syria, You've Got To Be Prepared, As We Learned From Iraq And Afghanistan, To Become The Government, And I'm Not Sure Any Country, Either The United States Or I Don't Hear Of Anyone Else, Who's Willing To Take On That Responsibility.

The United States Presents A Value System To The World That Is Based On Democracy, Based On Economic Freedom, Based On Individual Rights For Men And Women, .. I Think That Is What Makes Us Such A Draw For Nations Around The World. People Come To The United States To Be Educated, To Become Americans. We Are A Country Of Countries And We Touch Every Country, And Every Country In World Touches Us.

Politics Is Not Bean Bags. It's Serious, Tough Stuff.

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.

I Will Look For A Candidate, Republican Or Democrat, Who Seems To Be On The Way Or Understands How To Resolve The Economic Difficulties We're Having, How To Do Something About Unemployment, How To Make Sure That We Free Up Our Businesses And We Don't Over-regulate Ourselves.

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

We Need Stable Regimes In This Part Of The World [the Mideast] Who Will Be Partners And Friends Of Ours, Because The Fact Of The Matter Is We Do Rely On Imported Oil To Fuel Our Economy And To Fuel Our Nation.

People Get Work Done, Not Buildings, Not Staffs In A Generic Sense, And Not Plans, But People

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.

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.

The United States Is Looking At A Way To Launch Peace With A Disarmed Iraq. And So We Are Studying The Declaration That Iraq Submitted. Other Members Of The Security Council Are Studying The Declaration, As Is Unmovic And Iaea, And I Would Not Make A Judgment As To Whether Or Not The Declaration Will Be Found Deficient And Whether Or Not That Might Lead To A Material Breach And Whether Or Not, If It Did, That Would Lead To Action On The Part Of The United Nations.

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

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.

One Of The Greatest Talents Of All Is The Talent To Recognize And To Develop Talent In Others.

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

This Is Something Else That Is Drilled Into Us In The Military: Make Sure You Know Who Your Replacement Is, In Case You Become A Casualty. So You Have To Have Depth Within An Organization.

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

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'.

The Bottom Line In All Of It Is That, In Life, It's All About People.

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.

We Are Not Shrinking From Talking To Saudis Or Anyone Else In The Region, But It Is Up To Each Nation In The Region To Decide On Its Own How It Will Proceed And At What Pace. There Are Other Nations In The Region That Had Similar Policies To Saudi Arabia That Are Starting To Make Changes, Such As Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco. And So It Takes Time But When You See The Need For Such Changes, Then Changes Tend To Follow.

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.

A Dream Doesn't Become Reality Through Magic; It Takes Sweat, Determination And Hard Work.

We Believe, From Everything We Have Been Told By The Intelligence Community, By 12 Years Of History With Iraq, By The Experience Of The U.n. Inspectors And By Other Intelligence Agencies In Other Countries That Saddam Hussein Had The Intention To Develop Weapons Of Mass Destruction And To Have Such Weapons, And That Was A Sound Judgment Which I Still Believe To This Day Because He Had Had Them In The Past, He'd Used Them In The Past.

I'm Going To Be Bringing People Into The Public Diplomacy Function Of The Department Who Are Going To Change From Just Selling Us In The Old Usia Way To Really Branding Foreign Policy, Branding The Department, Marketing The Department, Marketing American Values To The World And Not Just Putting Out Pamphlets.

1. It Ain't As Bad As You Think. It Will Look Better In The Morning. 2. Get Mad, Then Get Over It. 3. Avoid Having Your Ego So Close To Your Position That When Your Position Falls, Your Ego Goes With It. 4. It Can Be Done! 5. Be Careful What You Choose. You May Get It. 6. Don't Let Adverse Facts Stand In The Way Of A Good Decision. 7. You Can't Make Someone Else's Choices. You Shouldn't Let Someone Else Make Yours. 8. Check Small Things. 9. Share Credit. 10. Remain Calm. Be Kind.

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

When We Are Debating An Issue, Loyalty Means Giving Me Your Honest Opinion, Whether You Think I'll Like It Or Not. Disagreement, At This State, Stimulates Me. But Once A Decision Is Made, The Debate Ends. From That Point On, Loyalty Means Executing The Decision As If It Were Your Own.

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

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

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

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

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.'

You Can't Make Someone Else's Choices. You Shouldn't Let Someone Else Make Yours.

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.

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.

America Has A Terrible Educational Problem In The Sense That We Have Too Many Youngsters Not Finishing School. A Third Of Our Kids Don't Finish High School, 50 Percent Of Minorities Don't Finish High School.

Even Though The Numbers Are Down With Respect To Favorability Ratings, At Every Embassy And Consular Office Tomorrow Morning That We Have, People Will Be Lined Up, And They'll All Say The Same Thing, "we Want To Go To America." So We're Still The Leader Of The World That Wants To Be Free. We Are Still The Inspiration Of The Rest Of The World. And We Can Come Back.

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

In The Military We Are Always Looking For Ways To Leverage Up Our Forces. Having Greater Communications And Command And Control Over Your Forces Than Your Enemy Has Over His Is A Force Multiplier. Having Greater Logistics Capability Than The Enemy Is A Force Multiplier. Having Better-trained Commanders Is A Force Multiplier. Perpetual Optimism, Believing In Yourself, Believing In Your Purpose, Believing You Will Prevail, And Demonstrating Passion And Confidence Is A Force Multiplier. If You Believe And Have Prepared Your Followers, The Followers Will Believe.

Foe Means Enemy. Now, Will We Have Differences Of Opinion With The Russians? Yes. Will They Get Mad At Us From Time To Time, And We Get Mad At Them? That's Part Of The Normal Diplomatic Relations.

I Understand That And I Have Had Very Candid Discussions With Saudi Leaders In The Past. I Respect Their Culture And Their Heritage And Their Traditions, But I Think That They Now, As They Move Forward, Will Have To Start Examining These Traditions And These Practices To See Whether Or Not Change Is Appropriate.

I Can Think Of Nothing That Saddam Hussein Can Do Diplomatically (to Avoid War). I Think That Time Is Now Over. He's Had His Chance, He Has Had Many Chances Over The Last 12 Years And He Has Blown Every One Of Those Chances.

I Respect The Fact That Many Denominations Have Different Points Of View With Respect To Gay Marriage And They Can Hold That In The Sanctity In The Place Of Their Religion And Not Bless Them Or Solemnize Them.

There Is No Suggestion Of Regime Change; Quite The Contrary, This Is An Initiative To Help People And To Help Governments Who Are Inclined Toward Change.

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.

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.

Leadership Is All About People. It Is Not About Organizations. It Is Not About Plans. It Is Not About Strategies. It Is All About People-motivating People To Get The Job Done. You Have To Be People-centered.

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

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

Be Careful What You Choose: You May Get It.

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?'

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.

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

The Troops May Whine And Moan, But When They Meet The Standard, There's A Sense Of Pride.

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.

I'm Not Active In Politics. I Vote As A Citizen. And If Somebody Cares To Know What My Opinion Is At The Time Of The Election, I Might Or Might Not Share It Publicly.

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.

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