Patton Was a Poet? Who Knew?
Band of Brothers
Well, if that don’t beat all. It explains a lot, though.
From a MilitaryNews article dated 11 Nov 2018 at Military.com | By Richard Sisk
From the article: Not everybody was happy that World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918, possibly least of all an Army colonel named George S. Patton.
Patton, then 32, wrote a poem titled “Peace — Nov. 11, 1918” in which he expressed contempt for civilians cheering the silencing of the guns that would deprive him and other warriors of “the whitehot joy of taking human life.”
“The poem described Patton’s ‘dismay’ at the popular excitement that greeted the peace, which he characterized as the ‘cruel glee of the weak,'” the notes continue. “Patton’s poem mourned the loss during peacetime of the virtues that he believed war inspired, such as sacrifice and purpose.”
Patton was dyslexic, which left the poem full of misspelled words, but the original draft is on disply as part of a display by the Library of Congress.
The library’s notes say “an editor, possibly Patton’s wife Beatrice, has crossed out those lines that express especially strong sentiments like comparing peaceful life to ‘a festering sewer’ ” in the draft of the poem on exhibit.
The reference is to the following lines:
“Looking forward I could see
Life like a festering sewer
Full of the fecal Pacafists [sic]
Which peace makes us endure”
If you bring this up to current events, does it almost seem prescient, as in a vague way, a reference to the disturbances we see now in politics?
If you go back into the histories of both World Wars, neither Woodrow Wilson nor Franklin Roosevelt wanted to be involved in the war in Europe. Both of them were Socialists in their thinking, with Wilson wanting a one world government through the League of Nations, and Roosevelt leaning toward government work programs to resolve the economic issues of the Great Depression. Both of them were reluctantly dragged into those wars, Wilson by a U-boat sinking the Lusitania in the Atlantic, and Roosevelt by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Neither of them understood (or seemed to want to understand) that pacifism of the kind that Angela Merkel has offered Europe for some time now leads to destruction of your society. And she’s lost her majority because the AfD received enough votes to take a seat in Parliament.
What Patton forgot, in his disdain for peacetime, was that while it is necessary to be prepared to defend your home from invaders, peacetime is the reward for successfully doing so… until the next bunch of barbarians show up at the gates.
I think Pres. Trump understands it quite well and is willing to rattle Vlad’s doorknobs and confront Xi JinPing as he did Li’l Fatty Kim da T’ird, who, BTW, has been squabbling over negotiations with South Korea, although they are continuing to dismantle the guard posts. (See below) https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/11/11/2-koreas-complete-the-disarming-of-22-guard-posts/
That’s something to consider and discuss at length.
Category: Historical, Liberals suck
He and Mattis share a lot, don’t they?
Here’s the full poem. https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-experiences/about-this-exhibition/over-there/armistice/peace/
“Whitehot joy of taking human life” and all. I’ve often wondered if some of our greatest warriors were so happy at war that if there wasn’t a military for them to serve in they’d be serial killers.
That’s very possible. Julius Caesar was happier conquering northern Europe than he was at home in Rome, dealing with the political stuff in the Senate.
Thanks! This post was pretty retarded w/o this.
The poem seem to be to me not without merit.
I think a brief reference to his poetry was made in the movie Patton.
I saw the movie on TV, but I don’t remember a reference to his poetry. Probably was cut from the TV version for the sake of fitting into a time slot.
George C. Scott w/ his booming gravely baritone was nothing like George Patton’s high squeaky voice. Patton’s biographer had a chuckle about comparing the voices of the two. Also, Patton’s birthday was 11 Nov, and he turned 33 on Armistice Day. Thanks Ex.
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/05/through-a-glass-darkly-george-patton.html
A scene from the movie at bottom where he recites part of his poem.
Pray for peace, but be prepared for war. As all of us here know, war is dangerous for children and other living things. The warrior in us plays a little dishonest game with ourselves by referring to enemies as targets, not as people. Every ship, plane, tank, fort , building, or fighting position sometimes contains humans that are just like us, with hopes, dreams, and desires for a long lived, prosperous life. Other times they contain scum that need to die. We’ve always thought, if the politicians had to fight the wars, maybe there wouldn’t be any wars. Not so true. Only in more modern times have “Leaders” and high ranking commanders been “in the rear with the gear.” Used to, they led from the front as verses commanded from the rear. As a people, we really do not want another WWI or WWII type conflict. We really don’t want what we have had going on for the last 17 years. We surely don’t want anything that leads to a nuclear exchange. That will escalate very quickly, and there are no winners in a modern nuclear war. Not a great big fan of Bill O’Reilly, but was given and read his take on “Who Killed Patton.” Lots of what ifs out there. Should we have joined with the Germans to take on Russia? Should we have pushed against the Russians after defeating the Germans? One of the few things my Father said about his service in WWII was how hard his Artillery unit was pushed to reposition and fire in support of the Battle of the Bulge. I believe that Patton did, deep down, grieve for his fallen men, but knew that was the cost of winning. We’ve all heard the story that his desire was to die by the last bullet fired in the last battle of the last war. Who knows? I personally admired Patton and his approach to warfare. He was given a lot of grief by his peers for going to the new fangled Armored Cavalry. Deo Vindice
or as some other folks said, si vis pacem, para bellum. Many folks just consider peace to be the rearming/resupply interval between the natural human state of war. Empirically, they’re right.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
Thanks, David. That is absolutely correct.
We have had eight years of a slacker trying dismantle and erode the military and while it’s better, there is still much to be done.
(Sorry about the misunderstanding yesterday!)
Screw with me and I’ll slit your throat
Slash your tires and kill your goat
Take your shoes and wear your coat
Burn your castle and drain your moat
Leave me be and I’ll do the same
But lend a hand should you come up lame
Share my food and hard sought game
I only ask you do the same
His farewell speech to 3rd Army is regarded by many as one of the greatest motivational speeches of all time, even if had a serious case of “deployment mouth”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army