A hard read

By lex, on December 17th, 2007

Soldiers of the second platoon, Charlie Company 1/26 had been decimated – literally – by insurgent attacks in the Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya. They lost their Bn CO to a humanitarian transfer when his own son died in Germany. They would be shocked by the suicide death of a respected senior NCO from another company. Mere chance prevented them to losing another handful of soldiers on an uncleared route in a hostile part of town.

A day later, they were ordered to go out on patrol. They mutinied instead.

And the strangest thing is that although I myself represent the law of hard discipline and military necessity, I’m not so sure they didn’t do the right thing.

It’s a hard read. **

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex