Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "General George S. Patton, The Biscari Massacre and The Slapping Incidents" video.

  1. Bit*h and bast*rd get self-censored but taking the LORD's name in vain is okay?
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  2. Patton acted like a bully. He had the mind of a general but lacked the temperament required for overall command of ground troops in an operation like Overlord. Ike was already stuck with Monty, there was no way he was going to put Patton back in the pit with him, not after their squabbles in North Africa and Sicily. Bradley had the temperament to work with Monty but in the end his patience wore thin and he could barely stand to be in the same room with the guy. But Bradley didn't have Patton's instincts. Ike knew that which is why he went to bat for Patton when Marshall and others thought he should be sent home. One has to wonder if the Soviets played any role in getting the slapping story out there. Patton's views on the commies were well known and the communists had people in key positions in the American and British press, enough to stir the pot and spin stories in a way favorable to their interests. Just a thought. As for the killing of prisoners, a lot of that went on. It only takes a few false surrenders to make guys on the ground weary of taking prisoners. I recall hearing a story about a young journalist who was covering the war in the Pacific and during his first island landing he saw a marine casually tossing pebbles into the skull of a dead Japanese soldier as he took a smoke break. He was appalled but when he mentioned it to his colleague who had covered a few battles, the older reporter told the younger man to give it time and see how he felt in a year or so. By the time he got to Okinawa, and had seen how viscous the fighting was and how badly the Japanese had treated POW's and civilian's he admitted if he had seen that same marine tossing those pebbles he probably would have sat next to him and made a game of it. There is some truth to the idea of victor's justice. Curtis LeMay said that had the Allies lost he would have been put on trial for his firebombing strategy and Robert Jackson, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the lead prosecutor at Nuremberg was among those who thought the Allies were on shaky legal ground when it came to charges like conducting wars of aggression and even crimes against humanity. War is a crappy business. I say that as someone who served for more than 20 years and any general who slapped an enlisted man would have lost my respect. But that's me.
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