"Sir, this is Patton Talking"
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“Sir, this is Patton talking … You have just got to make up Your mind whose side You’re on. You must come to my assistance, so that I may dispatch the entire German Army as a birthday present to your Prince of Peace …” — Prayer of Gen. George S. Patton, Dec. 23, 1944 |
Rich Lowry, of the National Review, writes of General Patton's prayer at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The battle, which lasted from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945, cost over 80,000 American lives and according to the Wikipeda article, the near 85,000 "German losses in the battle were critical in several respects: the last of the German reserves were now gone; the Luftwaffe had been broken; and the German army in the West was being pushed back. Most importantly, the Eastern Front was now ripe for the taking."
But Patton's prayer is important in another respect: believing in your fight. All of us, during this war against radical Islam, must realize that we either believe in our fight or we don't. And if we do, we have to realize that sometimes in war we have to pray for the death of our enemy. Lowry continues:
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Gen. Patton, who had been looking forward to thrusting toward the Saar region of Germany, instead had to relieve Bastogne. Earlier, he had badgered his chaplain to pray for optimal conditions for an offensive. The chaplain noted “that it isn’t a customary thing among men of my profession to pray for clear weather to kill fellow men.” Undeterred, Patton asked, “Are you teaching me theology or are you the chaplain of the Third Army?” Patton distributed a printed prayer for good weather to his troops and made his own appeal, noted above. The weather improved, and Patton wrote in his diary, “A clear, cold Christmas, lovely weather for killing Germans, which seems a bit queer seeing Whose birthday it is.” |