General Stanley McChrystal
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
It's great to see you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Well, I'm just going to break out of this and start with what I want from you. From me? I want you to start a national conversation on character. Yes. I think we could begin it tonight with this group. It's a fine group. I think we... What's the framing of the conversation? I think we turn the lights up, we bring some beer in.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Yeah, I think first is character is our choice. That's the great thing about it. We have agency over who we as individuals are. And Heraclitus said an individual's character is their fate. Character is destiny. I think that's true. Yeah. I also think it's true of a nation. And so we get to choose what our character is. Not somebody else. We get to choose. And it's the answer.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Didn't we just try that? Yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
American people went, eh, character. And only 65% of America voted. Yes. And the reality is we can do better than that. Right. What I think we can, yeah. Right. If character is the essence of who we are, Thomas Paine said that reputation is what men think of us. Character is what angels know of us.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Then I think if we look inside and we say, what can we, each of us as individuals, be, we have the opportunity to be something different. I mean, none of us is perfect. Every one of us makes a mistake every day. I'm 70 years old. I make mistakes, and it still frustrates me. You're 70? What am I doing wrong?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
The great thing about character is it is a combination of two things. It is our convictions. It's what we believe. Right. And there's no right or wrong to that, except we have to have thought about them. We have to know what they are. The beauty of writing this book is it forced me to put on paper and to really think about what I believe. Then the other half of it is our discipline.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Do we live to them? You know, you can have a lot of convictions you tell people about, but if you don't live them... They're zero. Right. And so I think our character is the essential identity of us as people and us as a nation. And we've led it a road.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Yeah, I think it's got three steps. I think the first is we need to think about character more. That's largely individual, but you can share it with people. Then we need to talk about it. We need to talk about it in small groups, not just on TV, but we need to talk about it in our schools and our families.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
There are certain norms that I think almost all of us would agree on. But as you talked about faith earlier, There are parts of faith that we vary on. But I think that if we talk about what are the things that sort of bound America together, what are the things that we all believe, how we treat people, be fair to people, have empathy, give an opportunity to people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
I think that's right. First, you need to listen to them. One of the things I learned in the counterterrorist fight was we had our forces, which, you know, I was obviously very close to the most elite people. And then we had our enemies. And there was a perception that they were two poles different. They actually had bent up.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
The personal attributes of the best people that I worked with and the best people that we fought, they were courageous, they believed in their cause, they were willing to sacrifice. There was a different life journey that got them to where they were. And if we're willing to listen to another person's life journey,
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
and admit often that had we had that same life journey, we would reach those same conclusions. Then you reach at a different point. Then they're not suddenly the enemy. They just have a different perspective.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Well it is but if we try to say they're incontrovertible truths you know many of them what are they. You know, we start to say he courteous, kind and forgiving. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty good. And those are the things that are common denominator sort of things.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
And that's where we have to connect, because the reality is we're not going to have the same view from different parts of the world, different parts of the country, different zip codes, different economic backgrounds, because your life journey is just enough different.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Yeah. I think from experience, one of the things you learn is you have to try to find common ground, and you have to start by having enough empathy. And remember, empathy is not sympathy. Doesn't mean you're rubbing somebody's belly and you agree with them. It means that you can... Would that have ended the Afghanistan war? Probably pretty quickly. Bring in the governor.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
You have to be able to put yourself on the other side of the table. You know, I would talk to Pashtun elders, and they had big turbans and beards and craggy faces and different lives in mind, spoke a different language, had a different religion. But in reality, they were actually pretty good people. And if you had their loyalty and their respect... They were as good as we are.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
In fact, they are very similar to us. So if you stop assuming that anyone who doesn't share those attributes is different and therefore less than you, you have a different approach to it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Very much so. Of course, I canceled my Rolling Stone subscription right after that. But the reality, yeah. Don't worry. Everyone else did, too. Don't even worry about it. It's funny now because, you know, we've got a little time and space. But, no, we had an article that came out that I didn't think was accurate, but I accepted responsibility for it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
And the reality was, in that moment, I had been born in an army hospital. I'd lived in an army family. I'd gone to West Point at age 17. I was now 55, almost 56. And suddenly, in an instant, when I offered my resignation to President Obama, I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm not a commander. I'm not a soldier. What am I? You could say, I'm a failure. I go home. Is that how you felt?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
I felt exactly that way. I felt as though a bolt of lightning had... I'd always thought I could be fired for incompetence or killed in combat. I never thought I'd be accused of something like that. And so I offer my resignation to President Obama, who was very gracious, but he accepted it. I had flown home all night from Afghanistan for this meeting.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
I drive across the city to where my wife was living in a set of military quarters. And I tell Annie, it's over. Because she and I had been married for 34 years. And I said, our career's over. I'm out. And she looked at me and she said, good. Good. We've always been happy, and we'll always be happy.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
And in that moment, what she communicated to me without being straight, she said, kind of face forward. And I always describe Annie as driving or living life like she drives with no use for the rearview mirror. And...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
It's going to be a long night. Oh, you're not kidding. Who's driving home? But we've been married 48 years. And if you think about it. You commit to something. And I had committed to the military. I had committed to my marriage. And I'm committed to my country now. And so when I ask you to help lead a national conversation on character, you have the stature. You have the reach.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
If people are thirsty for something different from what they see, let's encourage them. Not that we're going to provide it from the outside, but we're going to have them provide it to themselves. This needs to start with young people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Yeah, I certainly think you got to value loyalty. I can't put myself in his position. I can put myself in the position of an American. I can put myself in the position of someone who has both launched and been on those missions. And if someone had been using an unsecure mode to communicate about him, I'd have been upset about it. Yeah. I could see that. Yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
I think for the people I worked with, that had gotten your ass kicked. Right. But the reality is, the thing that upset me most about that was not the mistake. People make mistakes, and we'll make them forever. It was after the fact when people went on public news and they said the information wasn't classified. Of course it was. Right.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
And I don't like the idea that they would look and say something that... I know is not true and I think they know is not true.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Yeah, it makes it particularly hard, because if we start to have a conversation on character now, a certain group is always going to feel defensive, because they think that you are leveraging the word character against them. Right. In fact, it can go both ways. People on both ends of the spectrum can feel that. But we've still got to have it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
And that's why this has got to be a conversation that begins in the center. I think at pretty low levels that starts with saying, we're not going to vote for you. We're not going to buy your products. We're not going to like you on social media. We're not going to do all of those things you want us to do unless we see some level of character, not perfect character. We're never going to see that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
Right. But what we're going to see is a set of norms that say, We respect the requirement that there is character. If you make a mistake, admit it. What can our kids learn from watching us if they are absolutely disappointed every time they see, or if they just assume that's the way it is, that'll be even worse.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
I think it's absolutely right. I think it could start with character, but it really has got to emanate out from there. We have to have a different definition of what we think it means to be an American citizen. Right. Because right now, many American citizens think that if you pay your taxes and you vote and only about 65 percent of us vote, that you've done your job.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
In fact, the responsibilities are much broader than that. It is to every other American because a nation is only a covenant between citizens. God did not create the United States.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Trump Thanks Qatar for Their Generous Jet Bribe & Accidentally Does a Socialism | General Stanley McChrystal
You're blowing it. It's an agreement.