You know just like I do, sir, that sometimes the high brass, those fellows in the clean uniforms, sometimes those people think there’s no harm in it for them, that they outrank death and suffering. Isn’t it Walt Whitman who says of the vultures that they ‘pluck the eyes of princes and tear the flesh of kings’?” Roosevelt was impressed, looked at O’Neill. “I’m not familiar with the quote. Where did you read … oh never mind. I know better than to ask. I have no doubt that vultures don’t discriminate, that generals can die as easily as privates. Generals know that, too. That’s why a lot of them
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