Steve King Quotes

At the height of the Watergate scandal, the president wanted special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired, because Cox was developing evidence against the president. The attorney general, Elliot Richardson, refused to fire Cox and resigned. The chief of staff then turned to the deputy attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, who also refused and resigned. Finally, the Solicitor General, next in line of authority, agreed to fire the special prosecutor. These events happened on a Saturday night and became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. This event persuaded most Americans that Nixon was guilty of felonies and was desperately trying to cover things up. Congress would include “obstruction of justice” in it’s list of crimes that they would have impeached Nixon for had he not resigned.

During the American Revolution, conditions were very difficult for Washington’s soldiers who were ill armed, ill clothed, and ill fed while they were paid irregularly. At one point morale was so low that some of the soldiers revolted. Smyth observes that Washington and Congress disciplined the mutineers very mildly, especially when compared with the way the British would deal with such things. The British Governor Clinton tried to take advantage of the mutiny and the poor morale by announcing that all of Washington’s troops who wished could obtain amnesty and join the British forces where the pay and conditions were much better. Professor Smyth found it fascinating that none of the Americans would join the British and he credits it to the wise and mild discipline policies of Washington and Congress as well as the general perception of the justice of the American cause among the American troops.

Ataturk was a young major at the time commanding troops of a weak and corrupt Ottoman regime. However a combined English and French (the strongest military powers in Europe) invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula threatened to capture the Turkish capital, Constantinople. Ataturk alone rallied the Turkish defenders and fought the invaders to a standoff in long drawn out battle with huge casualties on both sides. Ataturk became a national hero. Although Ataturk thereafter was very reluctant to use military force or endanger troops, the thing he always thought worth the supreme sacrifice (including his own) was the independence and sovereignty of the nation. See {584502} for his continuing belief in this type of sacrifice.

In Pakistan, the civilian governments were not in control of the army who would have their own polices, foreign and domestic. When the head of the Army assumed the Presidency in a coup, he approached the Prime Minister of India—the Pakistan traditional enemy—and assured him that unlike with the civilian governments, he could negotiate for the country. Ironically, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh disclosed this quotation after Pervez Musharraf was deposed and democracy and civilian government returned to Pakistan. However the Indian Prime Minister then complained that there was no one to negotiate with as the civilian elected prime minister could not speak for the army—still the major power in Pakistan.

General Hunter had been assigned as the Commanding General of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas which Hunter thought was a “banishment”. Lincoln, who was generally very gentle and courteous when disciplining subordinates, could be quite firm also, but always reasonably courteous.

He always appeared in a military uniform after that.