It would of course be misleading, even unfair, to draw an equivalence between remarks delivered on the eve of battles fought six decades and thousands of miles apart from one another, but these excerpts—from General George S. Patton, in 1944, and Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins, in 2003—do rather convey two rather contrasting sets of, shall we say, cultural biases. First up, General Patton, sharing his thoughts with the troops in East Anglia shortly before they embarked for Europe:

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle.

You are here today for three reasons.. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self-respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men, and all real men like to fight.

…

We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have, or will ever have. We’re not going to just shoot the sons of bitches, we’re going to rip out their living goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.

The record suggests that, notwithstanding the tone of these homilies, Patton had no real problems with Germans qua Germans, because following the Third Reich’s defeat he was all for enlisting its veterans in a war to be fought with the Red Army (“We fought the wrong enemy,” he is said to have growled), and regarding European Jewry, or such of it as had survived in areas under his jurisdiction, his opinions were rather closer to Joseph Goebbels' than to David Ben-Gurion's. The general now, with ill grace, yields the floor to British Army Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins, who will give a pep talk to the men and women of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment as they prepare to cross the border from Kuwait into Iraq in early 2003:

We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

…

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves.

…

It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts, I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family. The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

It seems appropriate to note that Collins came to regard the invasion and occupation as a series of clusterfucks, and has acknowledged that the “weapons of mass destruction” that he and his fellow commanders had been assured they would find and might face did not exist. He had this to say a few years ago:

Iraq today is the product of our lack of planning and the success of the Iranians’ schemes. It is by no means a happy place. But it will survive, I believe.

However, the religiously and ethnically rich land that had existed for thousands of years before our arrogant invasion is gone and will never return—and we can’t blame Saddam for that, as we did it all ourselves.

But I have strayed from my point: two very different takes on the “warrior ethos,” eh?

cordially,