Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.


One of the rules Maj. Gen. James Mattis gave his Marines to live by in Iraq, as quoted in Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006) by Thomas E. Ricks; as excerpted in Armed Forces Journal (August 2006)


Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.