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2004.12.16

Rough men

Russ emailed to tell me this was on The American Thinker and give me permission to copy it. It's also posted here on The Mudville Gazette with some background information.

Rough men

“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”   -- George Orwell Author unknown (with a nod to the Mudville Gazette)

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

Update 2004.12.17: There's apparently some question about whether the "rough men stand ready" quote is really from Orwell. Mudville has the story.

Update 2006.04.29: I was pleased to see Michelle Malkin include "Rough Men" in this post today.

Posted by Bill Faith on December 16, 2004 at 09:11 AM in Poetry, Russ_Vaughn | Permalink

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Note: I hate to have to do it but I'm turning on comment and trackback moderation. If you post a legitimate trackback or comment I'll do my best not to be too slow about approving it. If the only reason you're here is to advertise your porn, music, or penis enhancement site you can kiss my sweet ass.

As an wife of a soldier, I couldn't have put this better. I can't count the times I've been asked why I choose to live the life of an Army wife. I wish I could have shown them this poem in a nutshell to explain how proud I am of my husband being a "rough man" and standing up for the ones who are asking me, when they themselves cannot stand up for the truth. Instead they sit back and analyze everything that is going "wrong" in the world. Bravo, Russ. Bravo! Or should I say, "HOORAH!"

Posted by: Burrow Army Wife | Dec 16, 2004 1:00:20 PM

Just in the interest of accuracy, the quote is NOT Orwell's, as much as it may seem nice to attribute it to him... go to my homepage link for more.

Posted by: theyeti | Dec 16, 2004 8:40:16 PM

re the George Orwell quote, "We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us." It is cited in Peter G. Tsouras, The Greenhill Dictionary of Military Quotations" at 373 (Greenhill Books, 2000) and attributed to a George Will column, "Rough and Ready", in the November 22, 1998 edition of The Washington Post. Calling up the archives of that paper produces (at a cost of $2.95) that article, with that quote (slightly different) included. The slight difference is the ending, rendered as "who would do us harm." In his 1998 article, George Will does not cite any source (print, speech, or conversation) for his quote. So, the trail leads to George Will, and we will have to ask him where he got it. rj

Posted by: Richard Linton | Jan 16, 2005 3:16:43 PM

I just wanted to say, that I truly appriciate this poem. As the girlfriend of man in the Army, as the daughter and step daughter to two men in the Navy, as the niece and grand-daughter of two more wonderful Army men (and many more connetions), I live in ''liberal'' capital, Eugene Oregon, its hard to have such a strong military background, to support my troops in everyway, not just collection drives but to speak out in their favor. I love this poem. I will carry it with me from now on, to show those who question my support why these brave men and women, wether they be family, friends, or even strangers, deserve every form of respect and support we can give them.

Posted by: Anika | Mar 9, 2006 10:58:12 AM

Its funy how you sterotype people. There is not such thing as an small enemy. The left coward?Give a break!My brothers did a stand at Stalingrad,where yours shit.

Posted by: Igor | Jan 5, 2008 4:49:35 AM

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