Re-listening to Hanlon's "Rangers this is the chief" speech made me realize just how chilling and profoundly sad speech it was. There was this quiet sense of grand tragedy where the speech seemed to imply the larger nature of all men and women in the Mojave being trapped in this almost supernatural, hell-like horrible cycle of war, prisoners not just in body but their souls. Just out of curiosity, was this grander feeling intentional, or was it more a reflection on Hanlon's mind alone?
I don’t know if it was quite supernatural, but Chief Hanlon certainly believed that NCR was trapped in a horrible cycle that was consuming the nation, but more importantly, the young men and women who were fighting NCR’s war.
“People back home don’t listen. They don’t care. Senators, Brahmin barons, folks who are just trying to make it from day to day. It’s been so many years that people forget about it. Conscription brings in fresh troops to die here every month. Like it’s routine. And even if we hold this dam, what then? Are we going to send the NCR’s men and women to die here for another five years? Ten? Patrol the whole length of the Colorado for hundreds of miles? Holding this dam. It’ll be the death of us.“
