There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.
Jim MattisRead
There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of resilience among military personnel, encouraging them to reject a victim mentality.
Jim Mattis highlights the need for military individuals, including veterans, to maintain a strong and empowered identity rather than viewing themselves as victims. This perspective is a call for strength and self-assertion, contrasting with a societal tendency to embrace victimhood, urging veterans to rise above challenges and take pride in their service and experiences.
In practice
In a speech to veterans, one can use this quote to inspire pride and strength.
There is only one 'retirement plan' for terrorists.
There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.
Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!
I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn't waste their lives because I didn't have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.
For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.
Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.
I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked.
Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered the ravages of atomic bombing. That experience left an indelible mark on the hearts of our people, making them passionately determined to renounce all wars.
I was taught to believe that the most dishonorable thing a Meredith could do was work in a white woman's kitchen and take care of a white man's child. I knew I would starve to death rather than do either.
The fight against evil is long and difficult. It is essential to pray constantly and to be patient.
Remember the hours after Sept. 11 when we came together as one...It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us.
With the inevitability of a tongue returning to probe a painful tooth, we come back and back and back again to our fears, sitting to talk them over with the eagerness of a hungry man before a full and steaming plate.
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