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Forums10
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Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350 |
Larry, I admire Americans more than any nationality other than my own. There is a myth that the American people love war. Mark Perry's splendid history "Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace (Penguin) quotes Patton addressing his troops just before D-Day:
"Men, this stuff we hear about America wanting to stay out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight---traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle."
To which the author, I think rightly, dissented: "No, actually we don't. Americans have traditionally hated war." That's one of the reasons I like Americans. I agree with you on the divided opinion. Sounds surpassingly civilized to me.
For all of Patton's erratic brilliance, it's interesting---I don't know what to make of it---why he brought up the ambivalence so late in the war.
Last edited by King Brown; 12/10/07 03:47 PM.
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,417
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,417 |
To paraphrase another great General of another time, R.E. Lee:
"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we would become too fond of it" Americans and Canadians as well have always been willing to step up to the plate when freedom was threatened. The face of war, however, has changed somewhat from his time. We Americans are now and forevermore ONE, not divided by region. We go to war to fight evil and injustice and the men and women who serve should be accorded EVERY opprtunity available to them when they return home (see the Sgt. David Mosteller thread) GOD BLESS THEM ALL!
George Lander
Last edited by George L.; 12/10/07 08:49 PM.
To see my guns go to www.mylandco.com Select "SPORTING GUNS " My E-Mail palmettotreasure@aol.com
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,379 Likes: 105
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,379 Likes: 105 |
King, Patton would've made a great football coach. He knew how to fire up the troops.
Robert, as Joe (who is a retired general) pointed out, there are indeed some Iraq/Afghanistan vets who will be disqualified from owning a gun due to mental issues. That is also true of Vietnam vets, and is (or was) true of Korean and WWII vets as well. A Vietnam vet with whom I served in the Reserves "flashed back" while he was hunting and nearly shot his hunting partner's son. At that point, he made the very wise decision to give up hunting.
If you can come up with evidence that Iraq/Afghanistan vets are being denied their gun rights unfairly, that's one thing. But posting a newspaper article that talks about how the federal database has been updated significantly since VA Tech to include far more mentally unstable people . . . sorry, I find that to be a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. Had it been done sooner, it might have prevented the VA Tech massacre. It's not a good thing if an unproportionately large number of those new names added to the database are vets. But that remains to be proven.
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