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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: 1019
Comments: 69
THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY Poster Comment: At dinner, say, after grandly intoning Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" ("If I should die, think only this of me/There is some corner in a foreign field/That is forever England" [sic]), Georgie [Patton] might offer his fond prediction that he would die in a foreign land, since, as Napoleon said, the boundaries of an empire are marked by the graves of her soldiers. Beatrice [Patton's wife] would nod, the fire in the fireplace would crackle significantly, and the meal would resume as the girls furtively eyed their father in expectation of his next trick. If discussing reincarnation (one of his favorite topics), he would offer up as evidence pertinent bits of The Bhagavad Gita ("For sure is the death of him that is born, and sure the birth of him that is dead"), and his old standby, Revelations 3:12: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." To these he added the fifth stanza of Papa's [Patton's father] favorite poem, Wordsworth's "Intimations" ode: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,/The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,/Hath had elsewhere its setting/And cometh from afar." Clearly, Georgie said, Wordsworth shared his belief in reincarnation. (Patton, The Pattons: A Portrait of an American Family, 198) The best expression of his past lives appears in a lengthy poem written in 1922 . . . .Titled "Through a Glass Darkly," Patton demonstrates a powerful belief in God and alludes to earlier lives, the first of which may have been as a caveman. He even suggests that while Christ was on the cross Perhaps I stabbed our Savior (D'Este, Patton A Genius for War, 324) More stanzas from this poem come from Patton, The Pattons: A Portrait of an American Family (the first and third stanzas reproduced here were quoted in the movie 1970 film Patton, starring George C. Scott): Through the travail of the ages I have sinned and I have suffered So as through a glass and darkly (198-199) This most moving and complex of his poems concludes with the words: So forever in the future (D'Este, Patton A Genius for War, 324)
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.
"A man must know his destiny. if he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. if he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it." * Some exerpts from recent Patton biographies regarding the General's feelings about reincarnation, including his poem "Through a Glass Darkly":
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet I've called His name in blessing
When in after times I died.
Midst the pomp and toil of war
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.
Played the hero and the knave
Fought for belly, shame or country
And for each have found a grave.
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names -- but always me.
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter
But to die again once more.
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#1. To: Deasy (#0)
Patton was insane. Most great generals are. Stonewall Jackson was insane, too. And many people idealize the military.
And many people
idealize the military. I'm not sure I'd use the word
insane. They all have leadership qualities and the ability to hold men
together against any odds. But we do have to distinguish between the men of
days gone by and the cookie cutter, PC sputtering, quasi politicians who lead
the military today. Can you name one great general who fought in Bosnia/Serbia
when Klinton ordered the 78 day slaughter of the Serbs? Was General Powell a
great general during the 1st Gulf war? Does anyone leap out from Iraq?
Afghanistan? None do for me. My point is that comparing American fighting
generals from years gone by to this current bag of slop is to compare apples
and oranges. The same holds for the individual soldier. These kids today,
except for a few, aren't worth a dime. Like every other formally great
institution, our military is a laughing stock, manned mostly by misfits and
sociopaths. When they leave they become wonderful cops, another institution
that has become a joke. Today the PD gathers mental cases in government
approved doses: blacks, browns, males, females and other cross gendered
freaks all hired in the name of diversity. All that's needed for entrance is a
vicious streak, a complete lack of
empathy, a low IQ and a willingness to follow orders from an equally
unqualified superior.
Turtle... Like Jethro I would not agree with that. Patton came from a wealthy family, well placed socially, so there was no need to join the military to be "somebody". Like the true painters and composers of olde that would starve before they would work, Patton had the art of warfare as his obsession and lifetime mistress. That being the case, a military career was the only avenue to achieve what he wanted. Patton was a prophet that should have spoken to the world but he did not. He suffered and endured the likes of Eisenhower because the study and practice of warfare was his life.
Militarism is in our DNA to an extent. You will not find anyone more anti-war than I am and yet, when I was three or four years old, I spent many hours playing with toy soldiers and engaging them with each other in mock battles in my backyard. I grew out of it before I was even 10 years old because, being from a rural Southern area, I began to read about real-(formerly)live young men from my county coming home from Vietnam in body bags on a regular basis. All the miserable criminal Johnson could say is that they were deterring "aggression" and "we seek no wider war." My grandparents knew LBJ personally, but their propaganda didn't work on me. I view those who remain militaristic their entire lives as cases of arrested development. They have remained three or four years old mentally.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
Neat!
Q: How are Jews like household appliances? The best part about having kids is rediscovering and sharing wonders and enthusiasms and getting to do all that kid stuff again.
Q: How are Jews like household appliances? Cyni, I don't know enough about Patton to discuss the specifics, but I can say this about him and the WWII generation that fought under him. They broke my generation of NYPD in when I entered in the job '68 (many, if not most, were Viet Nam vets themselves). I've never met a finer group of men in my life and I learned more from that early experience than in any other I've had subsequently. They hated the thoughts of taking a life, but none were better when it had to be done - and only when it had to be done. They would literally be rolling in their graves if they could see the current state of the NYPD and the military they once served in so nobly.
Sam... Broad sweep of the brush. We all remember George Washington, that gentleman served as a General even AFTER he was president.
Patton was an Army general, Eisenhower was an army paper shuffler. Many long years before WW2, Patton and Ike played poker, Ikes passion. Patton always won, which fits the difference between a paper shuffler and a military General.
Apparently he wised up, though, by the time he gave his Farewell Address. From the tone of it, he could be categorized as America's first great isolationist: In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim. So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. “I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
What an outstanding thread: a pleasure to read. Thanks.
That says it all. Got the picture, know the players.
Sam... Ike was the one that surprised me during my lifetime. I will never forget the speech he gave concerning the MIC. It was as if he was shining the light on the very people that put him in office. Also Ike had no qualms about sticking it to the Bear. Our attachment to Pakistan began during his time. They allowed us to run the U2 overflights from there to Norway. Kruschev was furious about it out of the public eye but Ike kept up the flights, and when Powers took a dive, Ike stepped up and took the blame, not shifting it off on some lackey. I voted for Ike, never regretted it. However if Patton had run against him, Patton would have won going away.
No, I don't believe that Patton was insane either. His words have power and humility at the same time. And I see not in my blindness Thoughtful humility is the mark of a sound mind. Thank you Deasy, for the muscular and sparkling verses of Patton, and keep me on your list. Don't have a lot of time today to comment but to say thanks to all for the great posts and to Sam too for posting Washington's Farewell Address. The comments and posts here are always stellar. When I come here to read and exchange opinions with you all here, I sometimes feel that I am speaking with the last Americans.
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. No, I don't believe that Patton was insane either. His words have power and humility at the same time. And I see not in my blindness Thoughtful humility is the mark of a sound mind. Thank you Deasy, for the muscular and sparkling verses of Patton, and keep me on your list. Don't have a lot of time today to comment but to say thanks to all for the great posts and to Sam too for posting Washington's Farewell Address. The comments and posts here are always stellar. When I come here to read and exchange opinions with you all here, I sometimes feel that I am speaking with the last Americans.
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. that's very nice, randge. thank you for that.
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
Christine, thank you for encouraging such open discussion here.
Patton's life is well worth studying - from reasonably objective sources. He's one of the few Generals who deserves the title of "Hero." I'm convinced that was the reason he had a fatal accident. After the successes of Hitler, heros could easily be the worst of problems, second to martyrs. In the American culture, the public mindset has been most cleverly 're- educated' to the extreme of unknowingly substituting celebrities, for the primal need for heros. AND - what do we eventually do with those celebrities? Ask Britney, et al. Instead, we get the likes of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman - victims, without an actual record of combat bravery. At least Jessica lived to tell her story and repudiate her own medals, as political imagery. There's a different form of heroism; I'll salute her for that. Speaking of which, Memorial Day is upon us - don't forget.
I can think of nothing that is not 'fair game' here. And unlike Muddog's Met's post, we WILL touch all the bases around the diamond.
After all that I've learned in the past several years, I have mixed feelings about this chance to purchase discounted mattresses, furniture, vehicles, and whatever else is out there. I guess that I'll try to remember the men of our Revolution and the guys from the South...after that, there is really nothing to celebrate, for me. Tears may be shed for all those who have died for a lie.
Tears may be shed for all those who have died for a lie. Coming from a Viet Nam veteran; we're left to honor what was in their hearts. The salutes & tears are for the unspeakable tragedy. For the sincere, my advice is to view/review the movie, "We Were Soldiers Once; and Young." That movie says it all, minus the lies which put those soldiers in death's doorway, in the first place. Even dedicated civilians can see and feel the pain & tragedy of the Viet Nam War. For emotional cowards, don't see it; you'll end up facing yourself. That's not criticism; just an aknowledgment of humanity, with a due & timely warning of a potentially brutal experience. It's a tough one for me to watch. I haven't gotten up the wherewithal to watch "Born on the Fourth of July." Coming home was the brutal experience for me. At some point, most of the vets got punished for going - and for surviving, ahead of the kid next door, who didn't. I got both barrels, myself. As a personal 'test,' I've visited the Viet Nam Memorial Wall a couple of times. I don't want to see it again. Given the current combat nightmares in Afghanistan & Iraq, those 58,000 died a second death - nobody learned a fucking thing!
pinging Cyni to your post, Sky. i was thinking about this today and puzzling as to why in the world returning VN vets were treated with scorn. it makes no sense especially when most of you were drafted.
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
Given the current combat nightmares in Afghanistan & Iraq, those 58,000 died a second death - nobody learned a fucking thing! Of course, we've not learned a freaking thing. We never have, and I'm convinced that 'we' never will. It's not in the plan. Back in '66, I told my WWI dough-boy grandfather that I'd been accepted into 'Army Intelligence' and he told me to always be prepared and ready to defend our country, but never volunteer to go over-seas to do so. I believe that I did the right thing by following his counsel.
Old boys start to ask the all important question, "why?"
he lesson of History is that governments, rather their leaders appear to have learned nothing from it.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" People were blaming the agents of war, not the designers and planners of war.
People were saying the volunteers and draftees must have been "stupid" and "enablers."
That is the killer question, one cannot ask with out becoming an unpatriotic outcast, the uncomfortable question that well mannered people must not ask. And that is how we are repeatedly and easily swindled. So we blunder onward with our Parade of Folly, destroying others and ourselves, burdening our progeny with our folly, as they will burden theirs.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" Even my thirty-year career USAF Colonel fil saw the scam of it all, after he retired from the service. RIP The trees have always blocked our sight of the forest.
Even after the murder of Jack Kennedy, we still 'believed' in our government. We thought that we were the best, the brightest, and the most honorable nation on earth. We were uneducated, and just plain wrong on so many counts.
oh, but the elite planners and executors of all these wars have learned. they've learned that war pays and pays them well.
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
I was generally on the wrong side of the law in my early days, but back then, I respected the cops. They were decent people doing a good job. They harassed the shit out of me, but they knew I was a punk. I deserved it. Then I grew up and was a good boy from there on out. However, over the last 30 years, I have seen the change. The cops now are nothing but a bunch of punks. Though I'm operating on the right side of the law now, I have zero respect for these cowardly pieces of shit. They can't even walk up to a car they pulled over in broad daylight without one hand on the gun. They are scared shitless of us peons. I can't even imagine how fast they would run away if they ever ran into someone REALLY dangerous. They'd probably piss their pants on the way too. I give them a hard time any time I can, and though they always start out acting like tough guys, they turn into whiny little wusses when I stand up to them by exercising my rights as a free man in a free country.
Dancing Turtles and Bouncing Boobs
...that's Turtle Island.
#2. To: Turtle, all (#1)
Patton was insane. Most great generals are.
#3. To: Jethro Tull (#2)
Patton was insane.
#4. To: Turtle (#1)
#5. To: Deasy (#0)
A: Honey! The Jew is on the fritz again.
#6. To: Sam Houston (#4)
(Edited)
A: Honey! The Jew is on the fritz again.
#7. To: Cynicom (#3)
#8. To: Sam Houston (#4)
I view those who remain militaristic their entire lives as cases of arrested development. They have remained three or four years old mentally.
#9. To: Jethro Tull (#7)
I don't know enough about Patton to discuss the specifics
#10. To: Cynicom (#8)
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it - It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
Washington's Farewell Address 1796
#11. To: All (#9)
#12. To: Cynicom (#9)
Patton was an Army general, Eisenhower was an army paper shuffler.
#13. To: Sam Houston, Jethro (#10)
Apparently he wised up,
#14. To: Deasy (#0)
(Edited)
What the objects were I wrought,
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#15. To: Deasy, All (#0)
(Edited)
What the objects were I wrought,
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#16. To: randge (#15)
When I come here to read and exchange opinions with you all here, I sometimes feel that I am speaking with the last Americans.
#17. To: christine, randge, lodwick, Prefrontal Vortex, HOUNDDAWG, Cynicom, bluegrass (#16)
#18. To: Deasy, Brian S, Christine, Jethro Tull, FormerLurker, Diana, All (#0)
#19. To: Deasy, all (#17)
#20. To: SKYDRIFTER. all (#18)
Speaking of which, Memorial Day is upon us - don't forget.
#21. To: lodwick, Brian S, Christine, Jethro Tull, FormerLurker, Diana, All (#20)
#22. To: SKYDRIFTER, Cynicom (#21)
#23. To: SKYDRIFTER (#21)
Coming from a Viet Nam veteran; we're left to honor what was in their hearts. The salutes & tears are for the unspeakable tragedy.
#24. To: lodwick, SKYDRIFTER (#23)
Back in '66, I told my WWI dough-boy grandfather that I'd been accepted into 'Army Intelligence' and he told me to always be prepared and ready to defend our country, but never volunteer to go over-seas to do so.
#25. To: lodwick, skydrifter (#23)
Of course, we've not learned a freaking thing.
#26. To: christine (#22)
i was thinking about this today and puzzling as to why in the world returning VN vets were treated with scorn. it makes no sense especially when most of you were drafted.
#27. To: Sam Houston, lodwick, christine (#26)
People were blaming the agents of war, not the designers and planners of war.
#28. To: Deasy (#24)
Old boys start to ask the all important question, "why?"
#29. To: Deasy, all (#24)
Old boys start to ask the all important question, "why?"
#30. To: Deasy. all (#27)
People were saying the volunteers and draftees must have been "stupid" and "enablers."
#31. To: tom007, SKYDRIFTER, lodwick, tom007, Deasy (#25)
we've not learned a freaking thing.
#32. To: Jethro Tull (#2)
Today the PD gathers mental cases in government approved doses:
This guy may be prowling 4um: |
Used Tires Amityville, Babylon, Lindenhurst
#33. To: christine (#31)
I ahve a couple of friends that do gov work and they go to DC frequently. They both say that the car dealerships there can't keep BMW's etc on the lots - Big Spenders are every where. I must say that this info is about a year dated. One of the friends admitted it was a little unsettling to see the wealth in DC. Well, they are the closest to the Printing Presses.
hese wars have learned. they've learned that war pays and pays them well.
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#34. To: christine, all (#31)
Yes, the jew financiers of both sides understand it very well.
oh, but the elite planners and executors of all these wars have learned. they've learned that war pays and pays them well.
#35. To: All (#34)
This is turning into a wonderfully good thread. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and insights here.
#36. To: Critter, IndieTX (#32)
How tired are you of hearing police say, "Our only concern is getting home safely at the end of the day." Such statements reveal two common traits in modern police forces. The first is an over-sized sense of danger. In reality, police work isn't in the top ten dangerous professions. Indeed, no government job is in the top ten. The second attitude is the self-centered nature of police work. Concern for the public takes a backseat to concern for "officer's safety." This current bunch of cops are about putting people into the system to increase the size and scope of government. When I was on that was the least of our concerns.
#37. To: Jethro Tull, all Cops, and military here (#36)
A retired Houston PD cop friend told me that if there was not blood involved, do not arrest, file a complaint, or otherwise take up their time filing any paperwork. This seems very reasonable to me.
#38. To: lodwick, Jethro Tull, critter, IndieTX (#37)
WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug- out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations. For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out. Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor. The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit. There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making. Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers? Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it." Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later. Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months. Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000. Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men. Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well. Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation? Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars. It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people – who do not profit.
see related and always a great read: Smedley Butley, War is a Racket.
TRAITORS TO AMERICA AND BRAINWASHED IDIOTS SUPPORT AND DEFEND ISRAEL. TO HELL WITH ZIONISTS AND THIER AMERICAN FRONTS: AIPAC/PNAC/ADL/JPCA/NAACP/CFR/FEDERAL RESERVE/NWO/SPLC/JINSA/ACLU/FPI/CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS/AEI/FEDERAL MEDIA/HOLLYWOOD, et. al.
#39. To: wbales (#38)
Big ups to you on this brilliant post. Thank you. Let us make war, no more.
#40. To: wbales, lodwick (#38)
Ditto what lodwick says. Dead on material!
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