But the worst handicap we had the prohibition of naming individual units who had done the fighting.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Naming is a privilege of reason and the province of bullies. We name to tame and to maim; to honor the great, the dead, and ourselves.
Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.
When you look at a lot of the military histories, and even modern military history, everyone pretty much refers to each other by nicknames.
In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.
The worst thing you can do if you want to start a fight is to use derogatory terminology.
With me it was that defending the Communist Party was something worse than naming the names.
I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision... is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive.
We fought no better, perhaps, than they. We exhibited, perhaps, no higher individual qualities.
You know too well the forces which compose their army to dread their superior numbers.
It was only by luck and the blessings of God that my soldiers did not encounter an assault, that we did not run over an IED. And to dishonor our service by saying we're not worthy of being called combat veterans is insulting to the majority of men and women who serve their country honorably.
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