If someone drops a bomb on your mother...

[therealUT]

You cannot be objective about an aerial torpedo. And the horror we feel of these things has led to this conclusion: if someone drops a bomb on your mother, go and drop two bombs on his mother. The only apparent alternatives are to smash dwelling houses to powder, blow out human entrails and burn holes in children with thermite, or to be enslaved by people who are more ready to do these things than you are yourself; as yet no one has suggested a practicable way out.

George Orwell, reviewing Arthur Koestler’s Spanish Testament for the magazine Time and Tide, Feb. 5, 1938

 

[OrangeEmpire]

or to be enslaved by people who are more ready to do these things than you are yourself;

"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't
be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our
women and breed a hardier race!"

-Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC

 

[utvolpj]

Personally, I prefer this approach:

Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States forces in the Philippines by Muslim extremists. So Gen. Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the now horrified terrorists. Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise (and those virgins) and doomed to hell. The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pig blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorists' bodies and covered them in pig blood and entrails. They let the 50th man go. And for the next forty-two years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world. Maybe it is time for this segment of history to repeat itself? The question is, where do we find another Blackjack Pershing?

 

[therealUT]

Personally, I prefer this approach:

The question is, where do we find another Blackjack Pershing?

Unfortunately, men like Pershing are few and far between. My favorite Pershing story has to do with his being awarded his fifth star. He accepted the position, however, refused the rank. During his career, he never once wore more than 4 stars.

 

[OneManGang]

The Pershing story, oft repeated on the 'net, is false.

He did direct some Moros to be buried with pigs but all that tactic did was to outrage some "human rights" types in this country. (Hmmm ... THAT sounds familiar!) However, according to Hugh Scott who was the military governor of Sulu Island, "The Moros, ... did not care enough about it enough even to discuss it among themselves." The pacifying of the Moros required much stronger medicine.

What Pershing DID do was to lead a brilliant campaign on Jolo Island which broke the back of the Moro forces and pacified the place. During this campaign, his "Jolo Field Force" - a mixed force of Army regulars and native troops - assaulted and captured a number of Moro forts with minimal losses. It was his action in the Phillipines that brought him to the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt - whose Rough Riders had served alongside Pershing and the 10th Cavalry in the Spanish-American War. TR promoted him over the heads of a number of senior Colonels to Brigadier General.

Pershing went on to lead the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa and then the American Expeditionary Force in WWI.

Interestingly, two members of Pershings staff in WWI were George C. Marhall (Army Chief of Staff in WWII and later SecState under Truman) and George S. Patton, Jr.

Source: Guerrilla Warrior by Donald Smythe written in 1973