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November 21 - December 31, 2018
Only those who have never learned self-restraint fear
Do something, even if it’s wrong…. —Unofficial doctrine of the United States Army Infantry School.
Soviet strategy, like Soviet thinking, has always been devious where American has been direct.
Outnumbered, outgunned and with no way to counteract the freezing terror—which the Germans call panzer fever—caused by the unstoppable Russian tanks, the 7th took frightful losses.
Arriving at Sihung-ni, Wright received a fresh message from MacArthur: “Personal MacArthur to Wright: Repair to your former locations. Momentous decisions are in the offing. Be of good cheer.”
We see, therefore, that war is not merely a political act, but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means…. —From the German of Karl von Clausewitz, On War.
This was the kind of war that had bleached the bones of countless legionnaires on the marches of the empire, and had dug the graves of numberless Britons, wherever the sun shone.
whether the American people have accepted it or not, there have always been tigers in the world, which can be contained only by force.
These legions of old, like the sword itself, were neither moral nor immoral. Morality depended upon the use to which their government put them. But when put to use, they did not question, did not fail. They marched.
General Dean once said that he wouldn’t award himself a wooden star for what he did as a commander. His country saw more clearly. It gave him the Medal of Honor.
But the abiding weakness of free peoples is that their governments can not or will not make them prepare or sacrifice before they are aroused.
Soldiers fight from discipline and training, citizens from motivation and ideals.
A crewman partly opened the hatch, thrust a pistol through, and fired point-blank at the Weapons Company commander. Unhurt, Schmitt jumped down. “You son of a bitch, we’ll fix you!” he said. “Somebody give me a white phosphorous grenade—” Pulling the pin, Schmitt dropped the incendiary grenade on the tank’s back deck, over the air intake. The North Koreans never did come out, though they made a number of unpleasant noises as they stayed inside and burned.
Not long after the end of the Korean conflict, after an unfortunate incident one night at a place called Ribbon Creek, the commandant of the Corps showed no more ability to stand up for his rights in front of a congressional committee than had the generals of the Army.
Except in holy wars, or in defense of their native soil, men fight well only because of pride and training—pride in themselves and their service, enough training to absorb the rough blows of war and to know what to do.
There was no place left to go, and all across the thin Perimeter Line American soldiers were stiffening. Hatred for the enemy was beginning to sear them, burning through their earlier indifference to the war.
There had been many brave men in the ranks, but they were learning that bravery of itself has little to do with success in battle. On line, most normal men are afraid, have been afraid, or will be afraid. Only when disciplined to obey orders quickly and willingly, can such fear be controlled. Only when superbly trained and conditioned against the shattering experience of war, only knowing almost from rote what to do, can men carry out their tasks come what may. And knowing they are disciplined, trained, and conditioned brings pride to men—pride in their own toughness, their own ability; and
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This kind of war, however necessary, is dirty business, first to last.
The only way for the outposts to have a chance was to issue only one arctic sleeping bag to each two men. This way, one man would be too miserable to go to sleep, and he would damn well see to it that his buddy didn’t sleep too long. It was not a popular ruling, but it saved lives.
A man had only so much luck.
Any ground commander, given men and willing to spend them, can break any ground defense, in time, at any chosen place.
When war is entered upon for the highest moral purpose, there can be no substitute for victory, short of betrayal of that purpose, and of the men who die.
MacArthur’s, was that of Wilson, Roosevelt, George Marshall, and most of the older generation. War must never be an extension of politics; it must be jihad.
Soldiers are brought up to tell the truth, and to take positive action.
Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud.
The object of warfare is to dominate a portion of the earth, with its peoples, for causes either just or unjust.
Any kind of war short of jihad was, is, and will be unpopular with the people. Because such wars are fought with legions, and Americans, even when they are proud of them, do not like their legions. They do not like to serve in them, nor even to allow them to be what they must.
For legions have no ideological or spiritual home in the liberal society. The liberal society has no use or need for legions—as its prophets have long proclaimed. Except that in this world are tigers.
The problem is not that Americans are soft but that they simply will not face what war is all about until they have had their teeth kicked in. They will not face the fact that the military professionals, while some have ideas about society in general that are distorted and must be watched, still know better than anyone else how a war is won.
the one thing that cannot be done with bayonets is to sit on them
Survival, in
an army, is only incidental to the mission.
A diplomat’s words must have no relation to actions—otherwise what kind of diplomacy is it? Words are one thing, actions another. Good words are a concealment of bad deeds. Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than drywater or iron wood. —From the Russian of Josef V. Stalin.
Americans should remember that while barbarians may be ignorant they are not always stupid.
The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world … we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time and beyond space and time, which whether we like it or not, spells duty. —From a speech by Winston S. Churchill, Rochester, New York, 1941.
status quo ante quem.
A nation that does not prepare for all the forms of war should then renounce the use of war in national policy. A people that does not prepare to fight should then be morally prepared to surrender. To fail to prepare soldiers and citizens for limited, bloody ground action, and then to engage in it, is folly verging on the criminal.
If the free nations want a certain kind of world, they will have to fight for it, with courage, money, diplomacy—and legions.
