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"Wonder weapons? Thank God I don't see the wonder in them. Killing without heroics? Nothing is glorified? Nothing is reaffirmed? No heroes? No cowards? No troops? No generals? Only those who are left alive and those who are left...dead? I'm glad I won't live to see it."
-General George S. Patton, Jr. It's the sacrifice of the soldier that makes war a regretable thing. I hate the fact that everyone has the unfair advantage of smart bombs and precision missiles. I often wish military armory hadn't progressed after WW2. It was the last great war because it was the last anyone will appreciate because of the sacrifice it took to do such a great thing. Without hardship there is no appreciation for what you have and how you got there. If we start to fight wars with mech warriors so we don't have to lose troops then the only thing we will have accomplished is to change the enemy's target from the soldier protecting us to the civilian himself. War is not won by defeating an army it is won by making your enemy regret first that he had tangled with you. There is no regret when a $1 million bomb blows up or a unmanned airplane is shot down. We won the revolutionary war, civil war, WW1, WW2, korean war, vietnam war, and Persian Gulf War because we made them regret their body count before we regretted ours. It won't be that way much longer if we keep removing the soldier from the field because then we will begin to deal with more 9/11 situations where we relearned what sacrifice is. The soldier is one of the most honorable occupations a person can have BECAUSE of the fact that they are willing to unselfishly give up their lives for something greater than themselves. When we have no one to do this than there is nothing great any more. |
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Once you've had steel coming downrange, and you have "sacrificed" yourself, you may have the right to say something like that. You will still be wrong, however. There is nothing glorious about death in and of itself. The glory comes from one's actions while alive, and no amount of applause or shiny things on your chest should be worth that ultimate price. Many things are worthy of dying for, but glory is not one of them.
And Patton was a bit of a nut, a genius of a general, but still nuttier than a pet coon in some respects (like his being the reincarnation of Alexander the Great). |
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Ever read Wilfred Owen?
Here's the last paragraph of "Dulce et decorum est" Quote:
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