Cowards Quotes
The Muslims conquered Spain and controlled it to one extent or another for 600 years.
Patton, though a great leader and fighting general, also was almost crazy and irrational at times. This quotation illustrates one of those periods. Somehow, most of the officers and enlisted men under his command were generally able to distinguish and live with him. In this case, no one tried to ferret out the cowards and kill them despite the Generals exhortation. Also, his—and other people’s notion that bravery is genetically inherited is scientifically incorrect.
Sometimes paraphrased as “the coward dies a thousand deaths, but the brave man dies but once.”
One of the puzzles of American Civil War history has been how the poor whites of the South (who provided most of the military manpower that fought and died in the Civil War) were persuaded to fight against a much stronger, more highly industrialized, and more affluent few, that had many more soldiers. One of the main reasons, though difficult for us to understand today, was that the Southern leadership actually persuaded the Southerners that men from the North were cowards and lacked the character, virtue or will to fight. The general “party line” of the South was that one Southern solder was worth more than 5 Northern Soldiers,
Conway was made a Major General by Congress and appointed as Inspector General of the Revolutionary Army. However, then as now, officers who told the truth about the failings of other senior officers were not well liked by the officer corps. The cover up was the norm even then. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.
Lacedaemonian refers to the ancient Greek city of Sparta,
Short was a "Tea Party Republican" long before there was a Tea Party. He was a virulent opponent of FDR, the New Deal, and the Roosevelt Brain Trust. The anti intellectualism was even then not new. Long before Donald Trump and the Tea Party of 2016, there were conservatives who constantly attacked the unelected government appointees and Presidenial Advisors.
This sura is interpreted in two ways. For many modern Muslims it means that in discussions and debates on religion with non-Muslims, do not back off, and if you do it is a religious transgression. Defend the faith. For the fundamentalists and extremists, they interpret the same sura in physical warlike terms. So if there is a fight or battle with disbelievers, retreating from the battlefield is not only cowardice and perhaps a crime under military regulations as it is in the West, but it is in Christian terms a mortal sin for which there one will go to hell. So the most religious of Muslims will fight to the death using this sura as their guidance. On the other hand, Muhammad himself as the military and civil leader of Islam made strategic retreats. In the history of almost all warfare between the West and Muslims—especially the Arabs—courage on the battlefield has been lacking and the Israelis, British, French, Americans, and Hindus of India all observe this military weakness and accounting for this is built into their military doctrine.
