A "Best of Old War Dogs" featured post. The webmaster is using a bogus timestamp to keep this post at the top of the blog for a while. Please scroll down for newer posts. This item was originally posted 2006.07.25.10:18.

Russ emailed to say he'd be on the road and probably wouldn't have much to say this week. Fortunately, over the months I accumulated a substantial library of his work at my old site. We're already getting more traffic here than I ever did there, so there must be some of you who haven't seen some of his work. Maybe the day will come when this piece no longer seems "timely," but not in my lifetime I fear.

This post is dedicated to all of our nation's veterans; to our men and women deployed in harm's way today; to Ariel Sharon, whose health, I understand, has taken a recent turn for the worse; and to the men and women of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Rough men

“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”   -- 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

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 28, 2006 at 10:18 AM in Best of Old War Dogs, Bill Faith, Poetry, Russ Vaughn, The American Warrior | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Skul

Thanks for putting that up Bill. Pretty much says it all.
Skul
282AHC
I Corps 67-68

Posted by: Skul | Jul 26, 2006 3:56:34 PM

Posted by: Wheaton

George Orwell was the author of your quote brother but great article anyway.

Posted by: Wheaton | Nov 17, 2007 9:13:45 PM