"Those that would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" Ben Franklin
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"Those that would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" Ben Franklin
"Strike hard and fast and do not separate"
- General Heinz Guderian
"The mind of the enemy and the will of his leaders is a target of far more importance than the bodies of his troops."
-Brigadier General S.B. Griffith, II, USMC
"The battle we are now approaching demands a colossal measure of production capacity. No limit on rearmament can be visualized. The only alternatives are victory or destruction... We live in a time when the final battle is in sight. We are ready on the threshold of mobilization and we are already at war. All that is lacking is the actual shooting."
- Reich Marshal Hermann Göring (Goering), Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (1936)
My old Commanding officer gives this speech before deployment
Colonel Tim Collins' Speech
Colonel Tim Collins' speech to around 800 men of the battlegroup of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade given at their Fort Blair Mayne camp in the Kuwaiti desert about 20 miles from the Iraqi border on Wednesday 19 March 2003.
And I believe its now pinned up in the American White House.
We go to liberate, not to conquer.
We will not fly our flags in their country
We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own.
Show respect for them.
There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.
Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send.
As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.
Wipe them out if that is what they choose.
But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.
Iraq is steeped in history.
It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham.
Tread lightly there.
You will see things that no man could pay to see
-- and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.
You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.
Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country.
Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.
If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow them dignity in death.
Bury them properly and mark their graves.
It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive.
But there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign.
We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back.
There will be no time for sorrow.
The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction.
There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam.
He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done.
As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.
It is a big step to take another human life.
It is not to be done lightly.
I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts.
I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them.
If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.
The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.
If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest -- for your deeds will follow you down through history.
We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.
(On Saddam's chemical and biological weapons.)
It is not a question of if, it's a question of when.
We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself.
If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.
As for ourselves, let's bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.
Our business now is north.
I can't post links as yet, However if you log into youtube and type Tim Collins then you can view.
Corndog
FAB
"It is only the dead who have seen the end of war”
- Plato
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
- Albert Einstein
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- Albert Einstein
"To be a leader means to be able to move masses"
- Adolf Hitler
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys.
Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu
"The purpose of all war is peace. "
- Saint Augustine, 354-430
"Confusion in battle is what pain is in childbirth - the natural order of things."
- General Maurice Tugwell
If it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid. (No source, just love this one)
"Tracers work both ways."
- US Army Ordnance
"Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision."
- Blake Clark
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
— Napoleon Bonaparte
“The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”
-Joseph Stalin?
“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.”
-Jose Narosky
“War creates peace like hate creates love.”
- David L. Wilson
and the last one for tonight...
From a youtube video. Very inspirational!
"If you're in the government, you do whatever you can. You talk, you negotiate, you debate, everything you can do keep me from going over there. Once you get me over there, turn your back, close your eyes because i'm gonna fricken wreck shop"
- Marcus Luttrell.
"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it."
-Desiderius Erasmus
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
-General George S. Patton
"Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."
-General George S. Patton
"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
-General George S. Patton
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-Thomas Jefferson
"Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student. At least they can find Kuwait."
-unknown
"There are two ways to come home, stepping off the plane and being carried off the plane. It doesn't matter how I come home, because I am prepared to give all that I am to ensure that all my boys make it home."
-from a letter written by U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith to his parents before he deployed to Iraq where he was killed in action on April 4 2003 and was awarded the Medal of Honor after his death in recognition of his actions during the invasion of Iraq
"The power of example is very important to people under stress."
- General Sir John Hackett, British Army
"The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood."
- Alexander Haig
"The problem with sports and war is that God is on everyone's side."
--Duane Alan Hahn
"There can be no peace but that which is forced by the sword."
-Henry Halleck, nineteenth-century American military writer and inept Civil War general
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys.
Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War
Eris loves all her shining sons!!!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOX
Peacekeeping is not a job for soldiers, but only soldiers can do it.
- Dag Hammarskjöld, Former UN Secretary-General
The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.
- Dag Hammarskjöld, Former UN Secretary-General
"Democracy has no convictions for which people would be willing to stake their lives."
- Dr. Ernst Hanftstaengl
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of War.
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
The purpose of all war is peace.
- Saint Augustine, 354-430
Dont worry baby...thats just artillery fire.
-Anonymous
:D
"There is a soldier inside all of us. Some people unleash that soldier when they are sitting on a bean bag chair playing COD: Modern Warfare 2. Others unleash that soldier by playing paint ball or "tactical simulations". How did I unleash the soldier in me? Easy: I signed my signature at the bottom of an enlistment paper. :P"
-DefensorForis
:D
”We will either find a way or make one.”
- Hannibal (247-183 BC), Carthaginian general.
"Victory, speedy and complete, awaits the side that employs air power as it should be employed"
- Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris (1892-1984)
"Peace is an extension of war by political means."
- Robert Heinlein
In war, truth is the first casualty.
-Aeschylus 525 -456 BC
When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.
-Jean-Paul Sartre
They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.
-Ernest Hemingway