Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
When Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad popped off last week, to the effect that February 11 would bring “the demise of the liberal capitalist system,” I chuckled that February 11 would obviously be the safest day in the history of the liberal capitalist system; but I did wonder what possible motive the Iranian leadership could have for letting their loose-cannon figurehead make such empty threats.
Well, it now appears we have an answer. When the country’s actual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, echoes this threat, declaring that Iran will “punch the arrogance” of the West on February 11, it becomes much more likely that the Iranian regime is plotting to do something spectacularly foolish. I think they are underestimating the U.S. and our president — interpreting his (and our country’s) desire for peace as weakness. The most spectacular miscalculation of this kind in recent memory was the 9/11 attack: Some of our country’s enemies figured that with a relatively inexperienced (in foreign policy) and politically weak (barely eight months after the Florida recount) new president, they could engage in a massive slaughter of U.S. citizens with impunity.
They paid the price for that miscalculation. It’s not too late for Iran to turn back from such a disastrous course: Even evil regimes — regimes that systematically violate the rights of their own people — have the use of intellect. Mike Potemra in The National Review
