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@@@@@ The General placed his fingertips together
@@@@@ The General placed his fingertips together judiciously and looked at Hearn"I'm not peddling theoriesAnd the conclusions leave me, as a general officer, in a poor positionWe have the highest standard of living in the world and, as one would expect, the worst individual fighting soldiers of any big powerOr at least in their natural state they areThey're comparatively wealthy, they're spoiled, and as Americans they share most of them the peculiar manifestation of our democracyThey have an exaggerated idea of the rights due themselves as individuals and no idea at all of the rights due othersIt's the reverse of the peasant, and I'll tell you right now it's the peasant who makes the soldier
"So what you've got to do is break them down," Hearn saidEvery time an enlisted man sees an officer get an extra privilege, it breaks him down a little more
"I don't see thatIt seems to me they'd hate you moreBut they also fear us moreI don't care what kind of man you give me, if I have him long enough I'll make him afraidEvery time there's what you call an Army injustice, the enlisted man involved is confirmed a little more in the idea of his own inferiority He smoothed the hair over his temple"I happen to know of an American prison camp in England which'll be a terror once we invade EuropeThe methods used will be brutal, and it's going to cause a stink eventually, but it happens to be necessaryIn our own back yard we have a particular replacement depot where an attempt was actually made to kill the Colonel in commandYou aren't capable of understanding it, but I can tell you, Robert, that to make an Army work you have to have every man in it fitted into a fear ladderMen in prison camps, deserters, or men in replacement camps are in the backwaters of the Army and the discipline has to be proportionately more powerfulThe Army functions best when you're frightened of the man above you, and contemptuous of your subordinates
"Where do I fit into this?" Hearn askedThere are such things as papal dispensations The General grinned at him, lit another cigarett |