Patton Quotes

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
61

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
lixy wrote:
BostonBarrister wrote:
“In case of doubt, attack.”

Can we infer from this quote that the USA is the most clueless nation of the last century?

That Patton quote is my favorite.

It took a very special country to produce such a great man as the General. He was a true and pure warrior, produced by the noblest and most moral society in the history of the world. Only the United States of America could produce men such as this.

Most other countries produce appeasing rodents, who cower at a raised voice. America produces MEN.

I thank God for the gift of being born in America, an honor I couldn’t have possibly deserved.

[/quote]

It is true America produces great men; but great military men don’t necessarly agree between them about war.

General Smedley Butler was the most decorated marine ever at the time of his death; he was the key man who unfolded the fascist plot devised by rich industrials and financiers to install a military dictatorship in America in 1935; he was revered as a god among politicians and military personnel, and this is what he had to say about war: ( very different view than Patton):

"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.

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. "

62

[quote]jeffdirect wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
lixy wrote:
BostonBarrister wrote:
“In case of doubt, attack.”

Can we infer from this quote that the USA is the most clueless nation of the last century?

That Patton quote is my favorite.

It took a very special country to produce such a great man as the General. He was a true and pure warrior, produced by the noblest and most moral society in the history of the world. Only the United States of America could produce men such as this.

Most other countries produce appeasing rodents, who cower at a raised voice. America produces MEN.

I thank God for the gift of being born in America, an honor I couldn’t have possibly deserved.

It is true America produces great men; but great military men don’t necessarly agree between them about war.

General Smedley Butler was the most decorated marine ever at the time of his death; he was the key man who unfolded the fascist plot devised by rich industrials and financiers to install a military dictatorship in America in 1935; he was revered as a god among politicians and military personnel, and this is what he had to say about war: ( very different view than Patton):

"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.

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. "

[/quote]

Well, its understood that war is the means by which leaders retain power and accumulate wealth. Therefore, because the United States ia a very moral country, war had to acquire a global moral sense to it. Rather than being a ‘miasma’ that seweeps over the land, war becomes institutionalised as part of the foundations of the State. Americans go to war only for moral purposes. (As a corollary: Only eternal war leads to eternal profits.)

It is only through war that we acquire virtue. “Society has never regarded virtue as anything other than as a means to strength, power, and order. The State [is] unmorality organized… the will to war, to conquest and revenge… Society is not entitled to exist for its own sake but only as a substructure and scaffolding by means of which a select race of beings may elevate themselves to their higher duties… There is no such thing as the right to live, the right to work, or the right to be happy: in this respect man is no different from the meanest worm.”
— Nietzsche

It is only through war, as a stimulus, that Man evolves higher and higher still.

“Ye shall love peace as a means to new war, and the short peace more than the long. You I advise not to work, but to fight. You I advise not to peace but to victory… Ye say it is the good cause which halloweth even war? I say unto you: it is the good war which halloweth every cause. War and courage have done more great things than charity.”
— Nietzche

To go to war is the height of morality.

63

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Well, its understood that war is the means by which leaders retain power and accumulate wealth. Therefore, because the United States ia a very moral country, war had to acquire a global moral sense to it.

It is only through war, as a stimulus, that Man evolves higher and higher still.

To go to war is the height of morality.
[/quote]

Morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong (whether by society, philosophy, religion, or individual conscience).
It relates too with ETHICS.

Thus, i don’t know if you understood Butler’s comment about WAR being a RACKET:
“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.”

Are you making the case RACKETS can be MORAL and ETHICAL if it involves WAR ?

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
It is only through war, as a stimulus, that Man evolves higher and higher still.
[/quote]

Dwight D. EISENHOWER: “I HATE WAR as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its BRUTALITY, its FUTILITY, its STUPIDITY.”

George WASHINGTON: "“Here lies the path to BUTCHERY and MURDER, nothing more and nothing less.” ( seeking to inscribe the department of war)

How do you equate HIGHER EVOLVING with BRUTALITY, FUTILITY, STUPIDITY, BUTCHERY and MURDER ?

If war, as you mention, elevates people, why so many soldiers struggle to find a place back in society after having so called " evolved to higher places" during the war?

Are they committing suicide because they consider themselves so “elevated” they can’t stand living along unevolved citizens ?

64

[quote]lixy wrote:
Today’s Strong Words:

The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it. �?? Francois de La Rochefoucauld[/quote]

“When not prompted by vanity, we say little”

Francois de La Rochefoucauld