EXCERPTS FROM JEFF COOPER’S WRITINGS 4/28/2025
The Countess and our daughters recently spent a delightful week in Bermuda. While there they were treated to an opinion by the Chief of Police that while violent crime is rapidly increasing, there is nothing for the citizen to worry about because there are no guns on the island. Fancy that! We might point out that there were no guns in ancient Rome either, but when I was there (I was much younger then), I always went abroad at night with an armed guard. It is all a matter of what you consider to be important.
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.6 June 2000
I find it wearisome to hear people describe the attack on the USS Cole as one of “terrorism.” We are free to use whatever words we wish to describe whatever we wish, but the attack on the Cole was not a piece of terrorism, it was an act of war. Terrorism may be described as homicidal coercion – an attempt to change national or political behavior by threat of force. The men who attacked the Cole were not attempting to coerce the United States, they were attempting simply to kill Americans – for theological, rather than political, reasons. It may be true that no recognized nation has declared war upon the United States, but Islam has officially described us as The Great Satan, and thus made us military adversaries in a Jihad or Holy War.It is childish to discuss any attempt to discover who is responsible for this act of war. If there were such a man it would be the Sultan of Islam. Osama bin Laden does not hold that title at present, but clearly he would like to.
You may recall a somewhat similar situation in which we found ourselves back in 1918. “The man responsible” was one Charlemagne Peralte operating in the backwoods of Haiti. Herman Hanneken, at that time a sergeant of US Marines and simultaneously a captain of Haitian Constabulary, was assigned the task of solving this problem. and he solved it – with a 1911 Colt. General Hanneken died two years ago, so we cannot very well re-assign him to active duty, but the Great Satan (read CIA) surely ought to be able to whistle up a worthy successor. The circumstances are not the same – circumstances never are – but the problem is the same. What is needed is simply a proper supply of viscera, but such is unlikely in The Age of the Wimp.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was not an act of terrorism. It was an act of war, and we responded appropriately. Admiral Nagumo said of that attack, “We have awakened a sleeping giant.” How right he was!
So here we are. We cannot allow bands of murderous fanatics to direct the course of world history, but they will surely do so unless we take appropriate action.
Tennis, anyone?
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No. 12 November 2000
The trouble with history is that it is not politically correct, thus we see the modern counter-culture historians adjusting it to fit their ideology. This is particularly noticeable in the movie industry, but in the Age of Illusion there are very few people who are concerned about the truth.
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.6 June 2000
The Sixth Annual Gunsite Reunion and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial was an even more resounding success than the previous five. The amount of histrionic and literary talent possessed by the Orange Gunsite family is quite amazing. In addition to the various declamations, both as original work and selected from renowned artists, we had two renditions from Shakespeare that were quite enough to blow you off your perch – one by Amy Heath and the other by Colonel Clint Ancker.
The theme for this year’s gathering was “honor,” a word less frequently used by our citizens at this time. The words Duty, Honor, Country are inscribed above the portals of our service academies, and yet I wonder if our mythical “man in the street” would be able to define them. So we spoke about honor, especially as exemplified by our patron hero, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. We attacked the subject from various directions without, of course, coming up with a flawless definition of the term. But the fact that we have difficulty defining it does not mean that we ought not to think about it, especially at a time when our nation has been held up to ridicule throughout the civilized world by the behavior of a conspicuously dishonorable man. A very popular tattoo in the 19th and early 20th centuries was “death before dishonor.” To make that statement today in or around the District of Columbia would be to provoke dirty jokes and raucous laughter. To this level we have descended.
The situation in which we find the United States of America – the last best hope of Earth – is the worst since Valley Forge. We cannot, on that account, give way to despair. We must fight back at every level and by every means. And the first weapon is the vote. The forthcoming election will demonstrate whether the people of America are worthy of what their forefathers gave them. Those forefathers were extremists in every sense of the word. Let us hope that we need not put the matter to a test again. However, if it comes to that, let us all vow to be worthy of the task.
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.6, No.12 November 1998
It strikes me that the Internet, useful as it is, constitutes a great source of what the military used to call “bum dope,” there being no screening or editing involved in the release of material. It also is in large measure redundant. Many kind folks have written in to respond to questions I have put in these Commentaries with information that they got off the Internet. That information they derived from encyclopedias which I already have. Not to complain, but information, per se, is of no use without the wisdom to use it well. We have plenty of information – what we need is wisdom.
Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries Vol.8, No.6 June 2000