Posted on 12/01/2009 10:03:07 PM PST by narses
I have been given command of Third Army for reasons which will become clear to you later on. You made an outstanding record as an able and hard-working staff under my predecessor. I have no doubt you will do the same for me. We now have two staffs merging into one, each with its own procedures. By working harmoniously and intelligently together a third staff will be developed with a third procedure, which should be better than either of the other two.
I am here because of the confidence of two men: The President of the United States and the theater commander. They have confidence in me because they don't believe a lot of goddamned lies that have been printed about me and also because they know I mean business when I fight. I don't fight for fun and I won't tolerate anyone on my staff who does.
You are here to fight. This is an active theater of war. Ahead of you lies battle. That means just one thing. You can't afford to be a goddamned fool, because, in battle, fools mean dead men. It is inevitable for men to be killed and wounded in battle. But there is no reason why such losses should be increased because of the incompetence and carelessness of some stupid son-of-a-bitch. I don't tolerate such men on my staff.
There are three reasons why we are fighting this war. The first is because we are determined to preserve our traditional liberties. Some crazy German bastards decided they were supermen and that it was their holy mission to rule the world. They've been pushing people around all over the world, looting, killing, and abusing millions of innocent men, women, and children. They were getting set to do the same thing to us. We had to fight to prevent being subjugated.
The second reason we are fighting is to defeat and wipe out the Nazis who started all this goddamned son-of-bitchery. They didn't think we could or would fight, and they weren't the only ones who thought that, either. There are certain people back home who had the same idea. Both were wrong.
The third reason we are fighting is because men like to fight. They always have and they always will. Some sophists and other crackpots deny that. They don't know what they're talking about. They are either goddamned fools or cowards, or both. Men like to fight, and if they don't they're not real men.
If you don't like to fight, I don't want you around. You'd better get out before I kick you out. But there is one thing to remember. In war, it takes more than the desire to fight to win. You've got to have more than guts to lick the enemy. You must also have brains. It takes brains and guts to win wars. A man with guts but no brains is only half a soldier. We licked the Germans in Africa and Sicily because we had brains as well as guts. We're going to lick them in Europe for the same reason.
That's all and good luck.
Why? Just because. God bless our armed services, every one of them.
I have often wondered how Patton would have responded to the last 40 some odd years. I think I know! LOL
He was right about the Russians too.
bttt
:)
These speeches remind me very much of Obama.
?
Was it the part about cowards?
Bump!
This reading kind of makes my day...I think I can remember, as a kid, a Paul Revere’s day parade (up Mass Ave through Arlington to Lexington) with Patton riding in an open car and thousands of people cheering...Forget the year...I was about 9 or 10...Maybe 43 or 44...
Wow!!! That was great. I love reading Patton’s speeches. I would give anything for an entire officer corps - Navy, Army, Marine, Air Force, Coast Guard, to be filled right now with Patton clones. I have a feeling that 0bozo & his fellow demoRAT socialists would be sitting in a military brig, awaiting trials for treason!!!
...you won’t have to say, “I shoveled sh*t in Louisiana.”
And ironically, clobbering Stalin in 1945 would have saved tens of millions of Russians. Laugh, but silently and sadly. (No LOL.)
We NEED a Patton today.
We've needed a Patton since the day he died. We just realize we need Patton today.
Incidentally, Barack Obama used "I" in his opening paragraph more often than Patton uses in both speeches, total.
Good catch.
“We NEED a Patton today.”
The kind of generals promoted today are the kind who view the deaths of his soldiers and civilians at the hands of a traitor as less of a threat than having “our diversity” compromised.
bump
MONEY QUOTE.
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