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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.
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
Humans
Weapons
Mass
Failure
Mistake
Fallibility
Decision
Hussein
Community
Decisions
Thought
Destruction
Human
Intelligence
More quotes by Colin Powell
The freedom to do your best means nothing unless you are willing to do your best.
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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.
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The great leaders that I have worked with are people who have a good sense of empathy with other people. They can walk a factory floor, or walk through a battalion and smell if there's something wrong.
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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.
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I think leadership is both a trained thing and a natural gift.
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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.
Colin Powell
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.
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The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
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There is no such thing as an unimportant person in an organization.
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Just hit my 75th birthday, I'm feeling great!
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The United States is not stingy. We are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world.
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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.
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The United States has every intention of continuing to do the kind of reconnaissance and surveillance work we have done for decades, well known to everyone, that is essential to protect our national security, and frankly, the security of our friends in various regions of the world. It is part of our collection system.
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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.
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Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection.
Colin Powell
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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I think you can improve on that natural ability with training and exposure to great leaders of the past and to management theories.
Colin Powell
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.
Colin Powell
Always be looking for the opportunities, and always be optimistic about what you can do with that opportunity.
Colin Powell
Economy's got to get moving, we've got to get the unemployment rate down. That may be the defining issue of the campaign.
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