Friday, January 20, 2012

Whose that author?


"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how—or why—he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people—'older and wiser heads,' as they say—supply the control. Which is as it should be."

15 comments:

The Dude said...

I just reread that book - I really got a lot more out of it 40+ years on. Always liked that author, made a bee line to his latest work on the paperback rack. Bee line, high line, or as they say in Cherman, ...

windbag said...

I've gone back and forth on the question of what my favorite Yes song is. I'm pretty sure it's this one.

Chip S. said...

That girl in the Eli jersey had a nice heinie line.

The Dude said...

Got that right!

Trooper York said...

You guys are good.

But Darcy called you nerds.

Just so you know.

Chip S. said...

Yeah, but just for us she's rockin' the nerd look in her avatar.

The hot librarian look is always good.

windbag said...

Call me anything you want, just don't call me late for supper.

rcocean said...

I'm a nerd and proud of it. To hell with stuck up cheerleaders like Darcy.

Where's my sliderule?

ricpic said...

"THOU SHALT NOT KILL!"

"But I wanna kill."

"Okay, I'll make something called a state. You can kill in defense of a state."

"Oh goody goody goody goody goody."

blake said...

I read that when I was a teen and I still remember that speech.

I thought it was kind of a stupid, fascist book.

And I can say that only as long as no one says his name, and his fans don't come lynch me.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

I have no idea but it sounds like a great quote.

Trooper York said...

It is "Starship Troopers" by the great Robert A. Heinlein.

blake said...

Shhhhh! You said His name!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I read Stranger in a Strange Land years ago, best science fiction book I've read besides the Dune Series perhaps. Of course being a Liberal I disagree with Heinlein's politics, but hell, good writing and reading transcends one's political beliefs.