Robert Carey Quotes
We cannot ask our soldiers to be courageous if our politicians are not.
Robert Carey, U. S. Senator (Democrat, NB), Governor of Nebraska, Interview, ABC This Week, November 26, 1995
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Colonel Banks had given him the Regimental colors flag and urged him to take care to return it with honor. This was his famous reply. In the midst of the Battle he was hit fatally with a cannonball. A Black corporal then took up the colors and he too was killed and yet another Negro corporal took the flag and returned it after a battle where the Blacks were commended for their valor. This quotation has been quoted to military men and women throughout the world as an outstanding example of military bravery and honor..
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.
Historically almost all dictators seized their power and war criminals committed their murders to “save their nation.”
Westmoreland’s critics point to this quotation as an illustration of exactly why he was the wrong man for the job. As Vietnam Supreme Commander, he controlled more firepower than any other military leader in history and yet he had “no room” for thought or reason much less mercy. Subsequent commanders of U. S. military efforts were much more sophisticated like, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Wesley Clark who were leading American thinkers, sophisticated at political and military reasoning and very capable of mercy. The modern American military requires men and women who are skilled at thinking and reasoning.
The poem was written for and inscribed upon a monument. The Atheists in Foxholes Monument was donated to Alabama Freethought Association, Inc. by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It is located adjacent to the Willa Mae Whatley Auditorium, in Fearn Park at Lake Hypatia, Alabama.
In contrast to the American army, there was no conscription in Canada. Note the quaint Canadian euphemism, "invited."
This quotation is a wonderful illustration of the change that has taken place in the American military. The young man who was not skilled enough for anything else was meant to be a soldier. By 2010 only one in four high school graduates would be skilled and intelligent to be qualified for the Untied States Navy. The other services also had high requirements in order to function with the high technology, of the modern military.