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I would not presume from this distance, nor would America presume to say who should be the leader of the Iraqi nation.

Colin Powell

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Colin Powell
Age: 87
Born: 1937
Born: April 5
Diplomat
Former United States Secretary Of State
Politician
Soldier
New York City
New York
Colin Luther Powell
Leader
Nations
America
Would
Presume
Iraqi
Distance
Nation

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Have a sense of humor to break the tension in times of great toil.
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Always do your best. Somebody is watching you.
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Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
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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.
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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.
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One important element of leadership is taking care of the troops.
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I don't want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.
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Great leaders are those who are able to look reality in the face, however painful it may be, and deal with it.
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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.
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I don't know that there is much the United States can do except work with the international community.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Some people naturally have a sense of empathy and an understanding of how to bring their followers to do things. They become great politicians.
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You know you're a good leader when people follow you out of curiosity.
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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.
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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.
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Bahrain is moving at one pace, Morocco another, Qatar at another, Kuwait at yet another. And we are there to assist our friends.
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The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world.
Colin Powell