Bitter Victory

Jane Brand:
What if he doesn't come back?

Capt. Leith:
Then he and I and you become part of history, of its futility.

Jane Brand:
Don't talk to me in riddles, Jimmy.

Capt. Leith:
It's a long time since I was in Libya. The Romans built wonderful cities in Libya: dead bones sticking out of the sand. War rolled over them. It'll be good to see them again.

Jane Brand:
You always seemed to prefer stones to people.

Capt. Leith:
I've learned things from stones.

Jane Brand:
What?

Capt. Leith:
All that people have forgotten in the centuries.

Jane Brand:
I seem to remember I was less than a stone to you. I loved you, Jimmy.

Capt. Leith:
We'd better go in. There isn't much time.

Jane Brand:
What can I say to him?

Capt. Leith:
Tell him all the things that women have said to the men before they go to the wars. Tell him he's a hero. Tell him he's a good man. Tell him you'll be waiting for him when he comes back. Tell him he'll be making history.

Capt. Leith:
[on mercy-shooting one badly wounded soldier, and trying to save another who dies] I killed the living, and I saved the dead.

Capt. Leith:
You're afraid to go in and kill with your bare hands. That's what makes a soldier and destroys you as a man.

Major Brand:
War is not murder.

Capt. Leith:
[chuckling condescendingly] Brand, you're wonderful! You have the Christian decency that forbids killing a dying man but ignores the work of a sharpshooter.

Major Brand:
[defensively] Well, war is killing.

Capt. Leith:
[laughing] Better and better. So, the fine line between war and murder is distane... Anybody can kill at a distance with the same sort of courage that a man shoots rabbits, but when it cokes to the dirty work. you have to call on a civilian.

Major Brand:
What is it that you're trying to say?

Capt. Leith:
That I despise you for the professional coward that you are!

Major Brand:
What about the war?

Capt. Leith:
That's something you have to survive like... uh, like love.

Capt. Leith:
[to Brand] If you don't have the courage to kill me, don't try to save me.

Major Brand:
Are you trying to goad me into killing you?

Capt. Leith:
Perhaps...

Major Brand:
Why?

Capt. Leith:
Perhaps because... i haven't the courage to do it myself.

Major Brand:
[walking into a room where Leith is adjusting the fan] Hello, Leith.

Capt. Leith:
[contemptuously after adjusting the fans downward] I thought that fan should. uh, cool the colonel's head and not the flies on the ceiling.