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Got any good speches to share?
heres a recent one from Iraq by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins (many of you have probably seen this one already):
"The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his Nemesis and that we are
bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional
commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires
of Hell for Saddam. As they die they will know their deeds have brought
them to this place. Show them no pity. But those who do not wish to go
on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to
rock their world.
We go to liberate, not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their
country. We are entering Iraq to free a people, and the only flag that
will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Don't treat them as
refugees, for they are in their own country.
I know men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. They live
with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you, then
remember they have that right in international law, and ensure that one
day they go home to their family. The ones who wish to fight, well, we
aim to please. If there are casualties of war, then remember, when they
woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this
day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly, and mark their
graves.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your
deeds will follow you down history. Iraq is steeped in history. It is
the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood, and the birth of
Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will have to go a long way to find a
more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be
embarrassed by their hospitality, even though they have nothing ...
There may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign.
We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will
be no time for sorrow. Let's leave Iraq a better place for us having
been there.
Our business now, is north."
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President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has always been on the top of my list due its ability to communicate so much with so few words. General MacArthur's Duty Honor Country speech to the cadets at West Point is also one of my favorites, but it is a little long to post.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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This is the speech that the movie Patton takes from. It is quite different from what is shown in the movie, due to length and content. I like this speech better.
The Speech
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come on I know you guys are sitting on some nifty speaches...
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Nelson Mandela, before it was fashionable in the US to say 'No more Apartheid' or 'Free Nelson' (not to belittle the efforts of any organization or indiviual actually involved in direct activism against Apartheid)
I am prepared to die
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Heres one I recently found again... Im sorry that it's in swedish... But maby intresting for the Scandinavians out there... It's a speach by former prime minister Olof Palme, murdered on the second of February 1986... It's about the Vietnam war, Palme was sometimes in my opinion leaning a bit too much to the left side but this speach shows quite a bit of clearness and it is a good "outside view" so too say, on the Vietnam war, IMHO.. I think it is probably the best speach made by an Swedish statesman this century...
www.spray.se/antonkorl/palmevietnam/htm
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"There you see more women than warriors. Unwarlike, unarmed, they will give way the moment they have recognized that sword and that courage of their conquerors, which have so often routed them. Even among many legions, it is a few who really decide the battle, and it will enhance their glory that a small force should earn the renown of an entire army. Only close up the ranks, and having discharged your javelins, then with shields and swords continue the work of bloodshed and destruction, without a thought of plunder. When once the victory has been won, everything will be in your power."
---Suetonius Paulinus to his vastly outnumbered Roman troops before the final battle with Boudicca; Brittania 61 A.D.
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Some more that I like...
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms Our brethren are already in the field Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death"
---Patrick Henry, March 23,1775, the American Revolution
"Come on, you sons of bitches Do you want to live forever?"
---Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daily, US Marines, before leading his pinned-down men on a charge of German machine gun positions at Belleau Wood, World War One
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
---Sir Winston Churchill
"Don't you forget that you're the First Marines Not all the communists in Hell can overrun you"
---Colonel "Chesty" Puller, US Marines; to his 1st Marine Regiment as they faced Chinese human wave attacks, Chosin Resevoir, Korea
"So they've got us surrounded, good Now we can fire in any direction, those bastards won't get away this time"
---Colonel "Chesty" Puller, US Marines; at the Chosin Resevoir, Korea
"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I WILL HOLD"
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, US Marines
at Belleau Wood, World War One
"This will be the bloodiest fight in Marine Corps history. We'll catch seven kinds of hell on the beaches, and that will be just the beginning. The fighting will be fierce, and the casualties will be awful, but my Marines will take the damned island."
---General "Howling Mad" Smith, US Marines; referring to the upcoming battle of Iwo Jima, World War Two
"I can almost hear the ticking of the second hand of destiny. We must act now or we will die. . . . We shall land at Inchon, and I shall crush them."
---General Douglas MacArthur, US Army; at a meeting with his commanders, August 23, 1950
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in the spirit of Colonel 'Chesty' Puller one of his forbears in facing overwhelming odds - a quote from Leonidas king of the Spartans, commander of the force left to defend Thermopylae (300 Spartans and, unfairly overlooked given that they also stood and died with their more glamourous allies, 700 Thespians, and possibly 400 THebans)
On being told that the archers of the Persians were so numerous that their arrows would darken the sky and block out the sun he reponded in best laconic style
'Good, for then we shall fight in the shade.'
Also, in the morning of the battle, 'Have a good breakfast boys; we'll dine in Hades'
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"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
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