Hardball

It is or once was the Army Special Forces motto. Where did this come from? What is the history? What does it mean to you? Does it have an application for Martial Artist? Just wondering.

__________________
The Way of the Warrior is Practice. Daily practice, accumulate practice minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day. {Book of 5 Rings} Mike Brewers 2008 Sit up challenge 44,000/100,000 running balance.(Crunches) Kicks 6,300/100,000

eXcessiveForce

The saying has been used for military units at least as early as ancient Rome (“morte prima di disonore”). By the time of the famed Roman senator and historian Tacitus (AD 56 to ca. 117), the vow of "death before dishonor" had become 'old-fashioned' and something espoused by the barbari or barbarians such as Caratacus (chief of the British, who revolted against Rome). However, some two centuries earlier it was Catiline (108 to 62 BC), the Roman politician who attempted to overthrow the Roman Republic, who had urged it and Cataline may even have been influenced by Thucydides (the Greek historian of 460 to 395 BC who wrote about the Peloponnesian War). However, the famous concept of death as preferable to dishonor, if not the actual phrase, is not restricted to the western world. For example, it was also advocated in the Japanese bushido code of samurai warriors who would rather die than live with the dishonor brought on by surrender. Even as late as the 1970s, Japanese soldiers of World War II such as Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onada were still being discovered on Pacific islands where word of the end of the war had never reached them

I found this, not sure about how accurate it is

__________________
eXcessiveFORCE.

If you must use force, make it excessive.

jubaji

Yeah, according to some sources I've read if a Samurai was injured on his back he was honor-bound to commit seppuku. I reckon like most such dramatic 'codes' it was rarely actually adhered to, but it reflects an ideal anyway.

__________________
Optional signature you may use to appear at bottom of your posts.

chillaplata

In the hoplite formations favored by the ancient Greeks, a man's shield protected the man on his left as well as the man himself, and the cohesion of the phalanx and its shield wall was essential to the effectiveness of the unit. A man who discarded his shield, presumably so he could run away, thus jeopardized his fellow soldiers and potentially the entire army, and was accordingly regarded as a disgraceful coward.

So when the Spartans went off to war, according to legend, their wives and mothers would tell them to "come back wearing your shields or on them".

I know this because one of my teachers in high school said this to us as we were heading off for a competition...

Blue Wave Gym

I thought the jarheads used it too

__________________
Tiens, voila du boudin,
voila du boudin,
voila du boudin
Pour les Alsaciens, les Suisses, et les Lorrains
Pour les Belges, il n'y en a plus,
pour les Belges, il n'y en a plus
Ce sont des tireurs au cul. Tireurs au cul