4um: Through a Glass, Darkly (Patton on the Cyclic Nature of War)

Title: Through a Glass, Darkly (Patton on the Cyclic Nature of War)
Source: Website of General George S. Patton, Jr.
URL Source: http://www.generalpatton.com/poem.html
Published: May 19, 2009
Author: George S. Patton, Jr.
Post Date: 2009-05-20 00:09:09 by Deasy
Ping List: *Up to the Sun* Subscribe to *Up to the Sun*
Keywords: Asatru, Odin, Norse, Cyclic
Views: 1096
Comments: 69

THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY
by Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have battled for fresh mammoth,
I have warred for pastures new,
I have listed to the whispers
When the race trek instinct grew.

I have known the call to battle
In each changeless changing shape
From the high souled voice of conscience
To the beastly lust for rape.

I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.

Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet, I've called His name in blessing
When after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows
Where we hairy heathens warred,
I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
We used teeth before the sword.

While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat,
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

Hear the rattle of the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
See their chariots wheel in panic
From the Hoplite's leveled spear.

See the goal grow monthly longer,
Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
Hear the crash of tons of granite,
Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

Still more clearly as a Roman,
Can I see the Legion close,
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.

Once again I feel the anguish
Of that blistering treeless plain
When the Parthian showered death bolts,
And our discipline was in vain.

I remember all the suffering
Of those arrows in my neck.
Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
As I died upon my back.

Once again I smell the heat sparks
When my Flemish plate gave way
And the lance ripped through my entrails
As on Crecy's field I lay.

In the windless, blinding stillness
Of the glittering tropic sea
I can see the bubbles rising
Where we set the captives free.

Midst the spume of half a tempest
I have heard the bulwarks go
When the crashing, point blank round shot
Sent destruction to our foe.

I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a General
Have I galloped with Murat
When we laughed at death and numbers
Trusting in the Emperor's Star.

Till at last our star faded,
And we shouted to our doom
Where the sunken road of Ohein
Closed us in it's quivering gloom.

So but now with Tanks a'clatter
Have I waddled on the foe
Belching death at twenty paces,
By the star shell's ghastly glow.

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

WWII legendary General George S. Patton 'was assassinated'.

WWII legendary General George S. Patton 'was assassinated'

London, Dec 21 (PTI) -- Conspiracy theories have shrouded the mysterious death of legendary US General George S. Patton for long. Now, 63 years on, a new book has claimed that he was assassinated to silence his criticism of WWII allied leaders.

According to the book, American spy chiefs hatched a plan to assassinate Patton after World War II in connivance with US leaders because he had threatened to expose the allied collusion with the Russians that cost lives of many Americans.

Although Patton had suffered serious injuries in a car crash at Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home. He died in December 1945.

But, according to the book, the wartime Head of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Gen "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman Douglas Bazatato "to silence" Patton who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".

"Patton was going to resign from the Army. He wanted to go to war with the Russians. The administration thought he was nuts. He also knew secrets of the war which would have ruined careers.

"I don't think Dwight Eisenhower would ever have been elected President if Patton had lived to say the things he wanted to say," the author of the book 'Target Patton', Robert Wilcox, was quoted by British newspaper 'The Sunday Telegraph' as saying.

In fact, military historian Wilcox has cited extracts from the newly unearthed diaries of the assassin Bazatato, who died in 1999, as well as interviews with him to corroborate his claims in the newly published book. The book details how Bazatato staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton's Cadillac and then shot the US General with a low- velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped literally without a scratch.

Wilcox told the British newspaper that when he spoke to Bazata: "He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.

"Donovan told him: 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.' I believe Douglas Bazata. He's a sterling guy." Bazata led an extraordinary life. He was a member of the Jedburghs, the elite unit who parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance in the run up to D-Day in 1944.

After the war he became a celebrated artist who enjoyed the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He ended his career as an aide to US President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission.

Patton could have been elected President. It would have been a very different world.

And had MacArthur (also politically dispatched) had his way in Korea, China would still be a third world country instead of our landlord.

Or if we had not taken military action against Japan's iron and petroleum supply lines before Pearl Harbor. They understood the threat of communism. They had an answer to Mao.

Many tragedies in the world provide us with ready excuses to engage in war, including the horrible Nanking massacre. I concern myself with our own troops who could have been spared if we had let well enough alone.