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Talking About Nazis Before Breakfast
It started with Patton and went on from there
I have an engineer friend who majored in history and linguistics. He is German — grew up in Bavaria and came to the United States as an adult. Thanks to the German education system being so much better than the American one, when I need to talk about anything historical, particularly if it pertains to European history, he’s my go-to guy.
If I want to talk about Asian history, I give my uncle a call. I also have a new friend, an engineer, who studied Asian history in college.
I’m not sure what it is with engineers and history, but I was also an engineer who loved history.
At any rate, I’d been reading up on General Patton after waking up this morning. My trip down the rabbit hole started with William Tecumseh Sherman, actually. I’d read the following quote that is credited to him:
War is hell. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation.
Anyone who studies history knows that war is hell. Yet sometimes it’s necessary. Because people suck. If were half as good as our dogs, we’d be out frolicking in the sun instead of figuring out ways to annihilate each other.
