"There are those who say that we are nothing but a corporation. But we have traditions. We have history. We embody certain ideals, integral to our nations honor."
—Colonel George Howe, The Punisher MAX.
"I sure hate going against American planes and missiles."
—Dominic Santini, Airwolf, "Fight Like A Dove"note
"We are the most powerful military force in the history of man. Every fight is our fight, because what happens over here matters over there. We don't get to sit one out. Learning to use the tools of modern warfare is the difference between the prospering of your people, and utter destruction. We can't give you freedom. But we can give you the know-how to acquire it. And that, my friends, is worth more than a whole army base of steel. Sure it matters who's got the biggest stick, but it matters a helluva lot more who's swinging it. This is a time for heroes. A time for legends. History is written by the victors. Let's get to work."
—Gen. Shepherd, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
"And, the usual jokes about the Army aside, one of the many fine things one has to admit is the way that the Army has carried the American democratic ideal to its logical conclusion, in the sense that not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed, and color, but also on the grounds of ability."
"Any healthy organization can survive individual divergencies, and may even profit from them. Compulsory unification of opinion can only achieve the unanimity of the graveyard."
—Adm. Hyman Rickover, USN (Plaque in the lobby of the eponymous Rickover Hall, United States Naval Academy)
Bidden to make war their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose. There is, I have said, an American mystery, the nature of which I only begin to perceive. If I were obliged to define it, I would say it is the ethos-masculine, pervasive, unrelenting, of work as an end in itself. War is a form of work, and America makes war, howver reluctently, however unwillingly, in a peculiarly workmanlike way. I do not love war; but I love America.
—John Keegan, Fields of Battle
I couldn't talk the captain [of the USS Mobile Bay] into firing a missile for me, but he showed me a videotape of a test firing ... Even in slow motion there was nothing slow about the missile launching. The flip lid whips open, and for a moment you see a bald top of something emerging in light and smoke, a high burlesque of a jack-in-the-box; then the ship's deck is covered by a tower of blast and dazzle blanketing one bright, rising, white, fiery column — hell's own hard-on.
This is the way to waste government money.
This is the way to waste government money.
—P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware -
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over, over there.
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware -
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's over, over there.
—"Over There", World War I song
In case you're unfamiliar with the final boss of planet Earth, known as America. We have a yearly allocation of money approved by our Head Mage and Council of Elders informally known as "Defense Department Dimmadollars." These give us the right, but not the obligation, to send any creature on Earth back to God for any reason, at any time. If the Ravagers think they can enter American airspace without consequence, I've got seven-hundred-and-seventy-eight billion reasons why they're wrong.
