Rough men

Hawk,

It was my reading of that quote at your site so many times that inspired me to write something about it. It is a wonderful bit of wisdom, and combined with this quote of Haile Selassie's, is a rather effective way of making critics of the war ponder their position, if but for a moment, until their fuzzy logic takes hold again.

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

Charles at Global Spec Ops brought this bit of wisdom to my attention.

"Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

George Orwell (with a nod to the Mudville Gazette)

Rough men

There's a character trait that's decided by fate
Comes (sadly) to many, far too faint, far too late.
They won't face the aggressor, stand up to his ire
They have not the will to fight his fire with fire.
So they bend over backwards to see all sides as fair,
Till they're faced with dragon breath fire in their hair.
Like our brethren in France, who'd know better than we,
Yet seem never to learn, seem doomed never to see.

Yes, it seems there are some who're determined by fate,
To possess not the courage to step up to the plate,
Who shrink from all threat because nothing's worth war.
But how can they know lest they've been there before?
Thank God some have courage, the will, yes, the grace,
To stand for the shirkers, stand strong in their place.
Thank God we have stalwarts who'll stand for us all,
Who will rise to the challenge at their nation's call.

The faint-hearted, who fear, whose reaction is flight,
Have no comprehension of those who will fight.
To hide their own trepidation they attempt to demean
The rough men, who defend them, as barbaric, obscene.
Yet these rough men stand ready, hard weapons to hand,
To put placaters behind them, draw a line in the sand,
To preserve for the peaceniks what they won't defend,
So their own unearned freedom won't perish, won't end.

To appeasers, rough men are coarse government tools.
To rough men, appeasers are dumb delusional fools.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Thank You Russ

Russ Vaughn is the Poet Laureate of The American Thinker

UPDATE: It seems there is a debate on where this quote originated. Now by all means, I'm no scholar but I can google and this is my conclusion.

It may be a merger of the statment made in Orwell's essay on Rudyard Kipling (1942) ["He (Kipling) sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them."] and the definition of a pacifist from Orwell's "Notes on Nationalism" (1945) [PACIFIST: Those who 'abjure' violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.]

Now who do we attribute this quote to? I say both. No one knows who created the exact quote that Greyhawk uses. Neither Orwell or Kipling said those exact words in any of their writings and we may never know who did, so let's close the matter with what we do know. These two were brilliant men and the quote was obviously derived from these writings.

And to the commenter who says on his site, Still, (mostly) warmongerers have been repeating this made-up phrase without question for a long time, and now with the "Good" attached - which in my opinion significantly alters the meaning of the quote which implies that the "good people" consent. Plenty of good people do not consent to most war.

To this I say yes, you right, "Good" shouldn't be added because bad people also sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. And the word "Good" added doesn't show consent by good people, it's just an undeniable fact, and for your information all quotes are made up, that's how they come into existance. Now "Shoo Fly don't bother me". -Thomas Brigham Bishop (sang by Kitty Wells)

PS:
maybe Greyhawk should add this quote to his header:

"Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool. - Rudyard Kipling"

Silly me
-- Mrs Greyhawk

Greyhawk says:

By the way that's why I never attributed the quote - its source is unknown. A lot of people credit me with it now, but that was never my intention. (Well, I did add the bit about the reader forgiving rough language or behavior.)