Cold Steel
by John Styers
Posted on 12/02/2004 5:12:57 AM PST by fo0hzy
I just found this book in a box of old stuff my dad sent me. It's in mint condition, printed in 1952, and startling in its blunt ambition: to teach you how to kill with your hands or a knife. Pictures throughout. Silver letters on a deep blue cover: COLD STEEL
This is a keeper. Here's the preface:
"Brutality makes apology impossible.
But as brutality begets cruelty, so apology begets explanation.
And, since America is not a brutal nation, the words between these covers are vulnerable to condemnation.
But an honest purpose cannot be damned. As long as other nations war against each other in lust, greed and ambition, brutality will persist and the brutal words on these pages will have a purpose.
When an atom bomb is loosed on a city, killing several hundred thousand people, the magnitude of suffering and death is incomprehensible to the average person and conjures up a picture of horror rather than brutality. If, however, the plane which dropped the bomb is forced down on enemy territory on the return flight,and the crew is faced with a hand-to-hand grapple with an enemy patrol where a hand throttling a throat, a knee smashing into a groin or a finger gouging an eye may mean life or death, then brutality becomes a reality.
The realness of brutality must be faced with the same direct approach in which we build an air raid shelter. World War II taught Americans the vast scope of atrocity; it would be criminal negligence to close our eyes to the bloody mayhem American military men will meet in the feild. They must be taught to meet it with a basic knowledge of its principles, the practical application of those principles, and confidence in themselves to wage identical war.
To Americans, who fight fair and clean by heritage--when they can--we dedicate this book.
That they may save thier own lives by confidently engaging their enemy with his own unprincipled principles."
"Cold Steel" is still available. A classic.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087364025X/qid=1101994334/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-5729196-1464934
Excellent standard text on fighting. Not sport.
I've only started to read it... very thorough.
By the author (not sure if its an excerpt):
http://www.gutterfighting.org/StyersBowie.html
Cold Steel
by John Styers
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