the chain of command that Duncan Hunter's worried about.

When we Shienarans ride, every man knows who is next in line if the man in command falls. A chain unbroken right down to the last man left, even if he's nothing but a horseholder. That way, you see, even if he is the last man, he is not just a straggler running and trying to stay alive. He has the command,and duty calls him to do what must be done. If I go to the last embrace of the mother, the duty is yours. You will find the Horn, and you will take it where it belongs. You will.

Soldiers became torturers because their chain of command chose to look the other way.

and we're working now to see that they're deployed within an effective and unified chain of command.

There was no coordination with me or Colonel Pappas. There was no discussion about chain of command.

[But the effectiveness of the response to Katrina appears to diminish the higher you move up the chain of command. By Sept. 7, Lott concluded that FEMA and its Mississippi arm were overwhelmed and understaffed, and he went straight to circumvention mode.] We're just going around them, ... We talk to people on the ground, and they tell us what they need.