Great Men, Great Words - Harry Truman

"It is a shame we can't go in and devastate Germany and cut off a few of the Dutch kids' hands and feet and scalp a few of their old men" -- Harry Truman

The year was 1918, and Truman's artillery unit had just quieted their guns for an over-long reprieve. His words echo the frustration of every soldier facing a war unfinished, the soul of every man that has tasted the glory of combat, from Thermopylae beyond. Only the dead have seen the end of war, Plato wrote, and surely only the dead would want to see a war left unfinished. At least this soldier would be given the chance to end the war twenty-seven years later, this time as President of the United States, this time with the dropping of a bomb. Victory.

From the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum -- http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/personal/large/ww1_letters/pg13_txt.htm