The Observer

Hello, it's Alexi Mostris, and you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer.

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.

You want it?

By making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

That speech you just heard about the bastards and the war, that's General George S. Patton.

Or more accurately, it's George C. Scott playing George S. Patton in the 20th century Fox production

of the 1970 Oscar-winning film of the same name. The film is actually an amalgamation of a number of speeches Patton made in spring

1994 to the US Third Army, but the sections quoted are broadly accurate.

At the time Patton speaks, the stakes are high. His troops are inexperienced.

In a matter of weeks, they will be fighting alongside the Allies in the wake of the D-Day landings. Patton's job is to hype them up,

using language a soldier would understand. We're not just going to shoot the bastard. We're going to cut

out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks.

We're going to murder those lousy hun bastards by the bush.

Patton swears, he dehumanizes.

His message is clear.

Screw everyone else.

We are a team.

I've got your back.

Let's go kill the enemy.

Inside the military, this is called kill-talk.

A linguistic technique used by military commanders to motivate recruits.

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