Hell of a Lot of Fun to Shoot Them

Col. Bill Kilgore's famous and decisive line about him "[loving] the smell of napalm in the morning" was memorialized in Apocalypse Now. In par with the parallels one can draw between the Vietnam War and whatever we are doing in the Middle East (something about freedom and Liberty, I reckon) we now have General Mattis opining about how much fun he has had shooting people in Afghanistan--And from what I gather, he is not referring to soldiers being shot either.

"According to an audio recording of Mattis' remarks, he said, 'Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling.'

He added, 'You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,' Mattis continued. 'You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.'

His comments were met with laughter and applause from the audience."