(From the beginning of the George C. Scott film)


“Be seated…

I want you to remember that no ******* ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb ******* die for HIS country.

Men, all this stuff you’ve been hearing about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a bunch of horse dung!

AMERICANS traditionally LOVE to fight. All real Americans LOVE the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, Big League ball players, the toughest Boxers…

Americans love a winner, and WILL NOT TOLERATE a loser. Americans play to win all the time.
I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who LOST and LAUGHED.

That’s why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing, is HATEFUL to Americans.


Now –
An ARMY is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team.

This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap.
The bilious *******s who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about FORNICATING.

Now, we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world.

You know –
By God I actually pity those poor *******s we are up against – by God I do!

We’re not just going to shoot the *******s, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our TANKS. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun *******s by the BUSHEL.

Now, some of you boys are worried about whether you will chicken out under fire… Don’t worry about it.

I can assure you, that you will all do your duty.
The ****’s are the ENEMY. WADE into them. Spill THEIR blood. Shoot THEM in the belly…
When you put your hand, into a pile of GOO – that a moment before was your best friends face –

You’ll know what to do.


Now there’s another thing I want you to remember…

I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position.
We’re not holding anything – let the Hun do that.
We are advancing all the time, and we are not interested in holding onto anything EXCEPT THE ENEMY.
We’re going to hold onto him by the nose, and kick him in the (backside)! We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time, and go through him like CRAP THROUGH A GOOSE!!!

Now there’s one thing you men will be able to say when you get back home. And you may thank God for it.
Thirty years from now, when you are sitting around your fireside with your Grandson on your knee and he asks you:

“What did you do, in the great World War Two?”

You WON’T have to say:

“Well; I shoveled (dung) in Louisiana…”

All right, Now you Sons of Bitches – You know how I feel.

Oh- and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle…

Anytime…

Anywhere…


George S. Patton

 

You gotta love the guy. Let's send this to the Taliban and Al-quaeda.

 

Interesting that you posted that Greywolf. After the WTC atrocity, I was in the mood for Patton and so I played my tape that night. George C. Scott really did a good job on that one.

I used to read some of the books about Patton and have forgotton a great deal of it. I still consider him to be an American Hero. He would have a fit, though, about today's military. He got in a lot of trouble then for speaking his mind. I can only imagine what he would say today.

And no, I am not starting something with our troops. They have my full unconditional support.

98 F250LD 4X4
Slotted Rotors

 

I find in that film a great deal of inspiration. General Patton was an Officer, and a man who (although he was very contraversial even back then) seems very much larger than life.
He had a mystical aspect about him, a very strong charisma, and a powerful drive to accomplish what he saw as his 'destiny'.

As opposed to the steady career tracks of the other Officers around him, his own "more closely resembled an electrocardiogram" in the words of one of the people on the documentary I have been reviewing. (From the extra material on the 2 DVD set).

When Patton was in battle, there was no one else that you could want to have in charge of the forces on the battlefield. He never lost so much as a single foot of ground, and indeed charged forward rapidly in every campaign in which he was a part...

It was during peacetime, or between engagements that he got in trouble. He was outspoken, and several of his beliefs were at odds with what we would call "Political Correctness". But of course, that accounts (in my book) for a great deal of his charm. In modern times, the closest Officer to what I percieve of "General George" is General "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf.

During Desert Storm, I had heard that on several occasions General Schwarzkopf was known to have been very volatile. That he had loosed tirades on his staff, much as Patton was shown to do, in one or two segments of the film.

And yet, the results of the Desert Storm operation speak eloquently of the man in the drivers seat, don't they?

I believe that such figures are a measure of the kind of leadership that we need in times of great crisis, and so last night I too returned to the George Scott film in liue of hunting for my tattered copy of his autobiography "War as I Knew It", which is somewhere around here, perhaps on a back shelf.

It's time to put it out where it can be referenced, among other works. That it should at least be a reminder to me to constantly keep myself focused on the job at hand, and to see further than my own petty concerns.

A local news commentator recently made the statement: "They do not all fight in the front rank; Someone has to cook, and someone else has to hand out underwear. But everyone plays a necessary part."

I teach, I instruct. And I intend to do that with every resource that I have GOT. So that when my classes are finished, my students will be better prepared than any others have ever been before.

So help me god

 

Greywolf, thanks for the transcript from the movie 'Patton'. I was thinking recently about the part about how wars are won by making the other guy die for his country. (Martyrdom).

My own views on warfare are a bit more severe. I subscribe to the Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman philosophy that an invading army should crush everything in its path. Both military and civil.

 

About the comment on our military, I agree with what you have said, but also, we have never been threatened with personnal harm in our own country, not since WWII. And the greats like Patton are allowed to shine(the pacifists dont let this happen to often,sadly they have alot of power in this country). It is going to happen again, and the idiots that have done this do not realize the CAN OF WOOP ##### they have opened. I pity the fools! Well, not really.

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 13-Oct-01 AT 08:20 PM (EST)[/font][p]I had intended on several occasions to write it down so that I would have a copy (the transcript).

Last night when I watched the film again, I stopped right at the beginning and ran it back as many times as I had to until I had the whole thing written down because it occurred to me -
"If not RIGHT NOW, then when will I?"

Because I know beyond question that many others saw this outstanding speach in the same way I do, I also knew that I needed to share it...

As "One Son of a Bitch to Another", now you SOB's - you have a copy TOO!!!

*grins*

And I sincerely hope you take that in the spirit in which it is intended...

>=o)

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 13-Oct-01 AT 09:40 PM (EST)[/font][p]I don't know if this will alter anyone's perspective. I post it for whatever it is worth...

The Vietnam conflict is widely regarded as a war that America lost, but it isn't.

This is why I say that:

One of the problems with it, was that it was never (true fact) declared an actual "WAR", under which various "War Powers" would have been authorised, in particular to the President(s).
In point of fact, it was officially declared a "Police Action", and this is widely regarded in some circles as the single greatest stumbling block that we as a nation could have POSSIBLY wished upon ourselves...

Because of it, the conflict was limited in it's scope, and what could be done. It was also open to interference from within our own Government, with the results that we know.

Additionally, it was subject to the whims of the (then) current diplomatic efforts.

And finally -

It ceased to be popularly supported on the home front.

Karl Von Clausewitz defined it a century before; that "War is an extension of diplomacy by other means."

But more specifically, for any such campaign to be successful, it must be supported on 3 sides -

1) By the military
2) By the government

and finally -

3) It must have the popular support of the PEOPLE.


For more information on that topic, I would advise you do a search for the writings of retired Colonel Summers, who is both an historian, and a military strategist. I believe he writes a column for the San Diego Union.

But my point being, as Vietnam was never officially a "WAR" -
It is still true that America has never lost one!

We did come out on the bad side of the greatest "Police Action" of all time- but nothing more than that


http://www.clubfte.com/users/greywolf/usaflag.gif
~ Wolf


PS: And if you doubt my words, research it yourself!

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/dcforum/User_files/TallPaul/3bd6f63b524ab6ea.jpg

 

I was up on the DMZ with the Marine Corps in 1967. It sure looked like a war to me. At least we all thought it was.

 

I know, CougarJohn -

And I have a few veteran friends that were in it pretty deep.

Dave was a door Gunner in a UH-1. He stayed in as long as he could, because of the crap going on in the USA. Eventually, after they had no place left to send him but cold-war germany he finally got out. But he never really recovered from it...
I lost track of him in San Diego, he was trying to get his act together, but at the same time he was pretty far down the road with booze.

I had another buddy (I came in in '84, so am not a Nam vet) that used to have a shack out by lake Hodges. That was his answer, he lived in a little piece of something like quiet and solitude and came to town when it got too quiet and solitary...

Butch though... He was something. The man was a single handed Vietnam Vets Organization in his own right, and I have met very few equally sane, and caring individuals in my whole life. He always went to the Vet's day shindig in northern Cal where the mini of the war memorial in washington D.C. was built - Sacramento I think. And always made arrangements to bring as many of his brothers as he could.

The biggest mistake that was made, from all the people I have talked to about it; was the failure to either declare a full blown war status to it, or to get the hell out of there and let the ARVN protect their own interests.

Instead it became a political football.
The policy on what could be done and what could not went up and down the field between the Hawks and the Liberals over and over.

In the meantime, a Hella lotta good men got chewed up, never came home, or came back so torn up they were never the same again.

Politicians don't fight wars, fighting men do. But they either ignored that, didn't realise it at the time, or conveniently forgot it...

I don't forget. I'll keep the faith, man