January 21, 2008

babylon & beyond - LA Times blog

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
-Rule #4 of an unofficial Marine Corps list on how to stay alive in combat

A plan for staying alive
The (highly-unofficial) Marine Corps Rules for Gunfights are tacked to the wall at a Marine outpost in the Iraqi town of Anoh in the Euphrates River Valley. Among the rules:

1. Have a plan.
2. Have a backup plan because the first plan won't work.
3. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.
4. Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

— Tony Perry, in Anoh, Iraq

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