[GonzoGOP]

Especially since they are the ones who will be on the receiving end of the aforementioned pragmatism.

Exactly. When the Confederates started planting land mines in front of Sherman's army (1864 IED's) he simply marched Confederate prisoners in front of the column. Once Joe Wheeler realized that the only people he was going to blow up where his own men who had been captured he stopped planting the mines.

When LeMay found that he couldn't hit the dispersed Japanese industry due to poor bombing accuracy over Japan he countered by simply fire bombing entire cities. His theory was that if he couldn't destroy the factories, he would just destroy the workers.

We tend to think of the Civil War and World War II as great idealistic crusades. But the men who lead the troops and who actually did the fighting were anything but idealistic. The men who 65 years ago yesterday raised the flag over Iwo Jima were not terribly concerned with the proper treatment of Japanese prisoners. Mostly because the weren't interested in taking any. Once it became obvious that wounded Japanese would pretend to surrender and then blow themselves, and any GI's around, up the standard procedure became to just shoot them again and be sure.

Idealism cannot survive the death of a societies ideals. After that it is just a race to the bottom. If you are very lucky, and have leaders like Washington, Lincoln or Eisenhower you hit bottom and bounce. If you aren't lucky and get a Bonaparte, Bismark or Stalin then you stay on the bottom until every last vestige of humanity is consumed. Note that the last three were from the same generations, and same situations as the first three. The liberals who believe in an eternal summer are fools. But those who seem eager for what is coming should temper their enthusiasm for the coming times. Sometimes you get a winter, some times you get an ice age.

[The Comedian]

Sometimes you get a winter, some times you get an ice age.

Your entire post was brilliant. Consider writing a short book on this theme, and I'll be the first to pre-purchase it!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[The Comedian]

Sometimes you get a winter, some times you get an ice age.

Your entire post was brilliant. Consider writing a short book on this theme, and I'll be the first to pre-purchase it!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[parsifal]

I remember one of my high school teachers telling us during WWII, he served in the Navy. Whenever Japanese pilots were able to parachute out of their planes, the gunners used to try to hit them. They figured if they survived, they would just be back.

As I recall, Patton(?) wrote the same about German snipers. If they sniped, they did not get to surrender. They got shot, hands over their heads or not. Patton, though, thought the Dresden bombing was an atrocity.

And FWIW, Patton used to ride around with John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost, and I think the last confederate who they permitted to surrender a year or so after the war. Custer once hung some of Mosby’s “Partisan Rangers”. Mosby promptly hung some of Custer’s men, permitting one young lad to go tell Custer. The hangings stopped.

parsy, who used to read a lot