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Quotes for the Military |
Lacrosseian
Fleet Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: October 01, 2004
Posts: 1254
|  Posted: 2006-10-07 18:55
“Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.”
-Italian Air Marshall Giulio Douhet
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Shigernafy
Admiral
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 5726
From: The Land of Taxation without Representation
| Posted: 2006-10-07 19:05
I think its always important to have a little perspective. Many things have been said which have then been misused, and military establishments are notorious for enlisting the help of philosophers to justify their causes - regardless of the actual opinion of the philosophers (the Nazi use of Nietzche, to cite one example).
Regarding John Stuart Mill, the quote is first of all incomplete, and second of all should not be taken out of context. The quote comes from the closing paragraph of "The Contest in America," a text Mill wrote in response to widespread British support of the Confederacy just after it seceeded from the United States. Mills basic premise is that Britain coming close to war with the United States would be a travesty - for while it is true that the US impugned her honor in the Trent affair, going to war to protect the rights of the Confederate diplomats would be wholly wrong. For even if there were a current justification, history would not look upon England kindly for perpetuating slavery. If they recognized the Confederacy, having assisted in its fight for freedom, they would then have to allow its ships to transport slaves; they would economically support the slave trade; they would likely have to eventually intervene in Mexico, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and other free territories which the South would likely soon extend their "peculiar institution."
Slavery is such an affront against humanity, against liberty - and remember that Mills is a large proponent of personal liberty and one of the foremost writers on the subject - that Britain has no choice but to at least stay neutral... but really it should be supporting the North. Perhaps not militarily, but England had long abolished slavery of their own, and held that the Blacks in the south were Humans like everyone else in the world; it was a moral contradiction to support the South - directly or indirectly, for those who decry the war in America are supporting the South. Giving in to the South's demands to avoid war is perpetuating evil.. and while the North may not be fighting purely on principle, there is enough to warrant the current war.
The full quote from the paper is here. I've bolded the second which was originally posted, with the addition in the middle, but the preceeding and following material is also important to his point. If you're curious in his entire treatise, you can find it on Project Gutenberg, at this link. The final paragraph contains the quote.
For these reasons I cannot join with those who cry Peace, peace. I cannot wish that this war should not have been engaged in by the North, or that being engaged in, it should be terminated on any conditions but such as would retain the whole of the Territories as free soil. I am not blind to the possibility that it may require a long war to lower the arrogance and tame the aggressive ambition of the slave-owners, to the point of either returning to the Union, or consenting to remain out of it with their present limits. But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice--is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other. I am far from saying that the present struggle, on the part of the Northern Americans, is wholly of this exalted character; that it has arrived at the stage of being altogether a war for justice, a war of principle. But there was from the beginning, and now is, a large infusion of that element in it; and this is increasing, will increase, and if the war lasts, will in the end predominate. Should that time come, not only will the greatest enormity which still exists among mankind as an institution [slavery], receive far earlier its coups de grâce than there has ever, until now, appeared any probability of; but in effecting this the Free States will have raised themselves to that elevated position in the scale of morality and dignity, which is derived from great sacrifices consciously made in a virtuous cause, and the sense of an inestimable benefit to all future ages, brought about by their own voluntary efforts.
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* [S.W]AdmBito @55321 Sent \"I dunno; the French had a few missteps. But they're on the right track, one headbutt at a time.\"
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Shigernafy
Admiral
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 5726
From: The Land of Taxation without Representation
| Posted: 2006-10-08 14:10
Sweet, killed another one! Who needs locks when you have talent like this?
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* [S.W]AdmBito @55321 Sent \"I dunno; the French had a few missteps. But they're on the right track, one headbutt at a time.\"
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-RevenG-
Raven Warriors
Joined: March 03, 2004
Posts: 2673
| Posted: 2006-10-08 17:15
MEDIC!
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Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
| Posted: 2006-10-08 18:14
Sorry... medic is busy - back after lunch!
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Lacrosseian
Fleet Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: October 01, 2004
Posts: 1254
| Posted: 2006-10-14 21:07
"The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow."
"The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."
-General Colin L. Powell
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Lacrosseian
Fleet Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: October 01, 2004
Posts: 1254
| Posted: 2006-11-05 20:43
“Integrity is the fundamental premise for military service in a free society. Without integrity, the moral pillars of our military strength, public trust, and self-respect are lost.”
-General Charles A. Gabriel, Chief of Staff, USAF
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Lux (Polaris)
Fleet Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: April 20, 2004
Posts: 835
From: Asgard
| Posted: 2006-11-05 21:07
We have come to a place far from home/
Time long passed since we have seen the sun rise/
A place where peace can finally come/
A place where we can rest and laugh and love and sing once more./
A Soldier's Tale - Rainforest Wars, a military classic published in 2164.
Fourth Halo book rocks.
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