Posted on 01/26/2015 1:29:37 PM PST by poetbdk
Hitler did not hate snipers, per se.
Hitler hated people whom he could not control.
Snipers perform the “surgical strikes” so beloved of pacifists.
The alternative is “Kill ‘em all and let allah sort ‘em out”.
Would they prefer carpet bombing with napalm?
In medieval England, snipers were called “Men of Keen Sight.” They were the ones who identified Henry VII at Bosworth for Richard the Third.
My mother’s first husband was killed by a sniper in WWII. She has never, ever spoken out against snipers. But then she’s a mature woman of 90 who understands the nature of war.
St. Joan is my favorite saint. A brilliant warrior, a woman touched by God who died with the word “Jesus” on her lips. Who can forget the poor English soldier who screamed “We have burned a saint!” and had to be taken to a tavern to calm his nerves.
Even though St. Joan was a warrior she was ultimately a peacemaker as she ended a terrible war that had been going on for almost 100 years. As Churchill said: “Joan was a being so uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a thousand years.”
I, personally, believe Joan was a war-lover in the same way Robert E. Lee and others were war-lovers. That is as far from a knock as I can come up with. She was ordained by God to throw the English out of France although I also love the English side and try to see both sides. A great woman, a great saint, and a great soldier.
I guess it depends of your meaning of the word but I would certainly not call St. Joan or REL or any other true soldier of God a war-lover. I believe what Gen Douglas MacArthur said in his famous speech Duty, Honor, Country: “This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
I said she was a war lover not a war monger. She cried over the casualties and once tried to push the intestines of an English soldier back into his body. But no one with her strategic and tactical genius could not enjoy the planning and execution of war. La Hire and the Bastard listened to everything she had to say and they knew their stuff.
Understand and agree, there is always a sense of satisfaction of doing a job well and St. Joan certainly did the job God called her to do very well.
One well trained man. One well built rifle. History can change at 2800 FPS.
Why is God for the French instead of the British?
Amen!!
Or Vasili Zaitsev in Enemy at the Gates, but of course he was a fellow Commie, so he’s a “good” sniper.
After all, it’s so much ballsier to tap someone with a Predator from half a world away.
Was William Tell really a sniper? Hitler is supposed to have exclaimed in 1942: "Why did Schiller have to immortalize that Swiss sniper!" But his plans for last ditch resistance in 1945 included heavy reliance on snipers. He certainly didn't have a principled opposition to that tactic or any other that served his purpose.
This is the Sniper's Badge (Third Class) that Hitler established in 1944:
Soldiers were told to remove it if they were at risk of being taken prisoner as the Russians would shoot men wearing the badge. Stalin, like Hitler, was afraid of assassins but not opposed to having snipers in his army.
Again you are missing the point which is that all tyrants hate anyone that can oppose them with lethal force and a sniper can do so as one man with one shot. If this is not clear to you then I can do not better in explaining.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.