Words for blood
Lt Col Tim Collins’ speech to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish are making headlines in Britain today, demonstrating that tha art of oratory is not dead. While making no secret of the fact that war brings destruction, and that some of his own might not make it home, he urged the troops to behave honourably:
“We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.
“Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there.”
“You will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.
“You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.
“Don’t treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.”
Surely a stretch, I admit, but I don’t think we can expect to get closer to Henry V’s St. Crispen’s Day Speech in our day and time.