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."
A girl’s courage challenges us to act By Laura Bush, Published: October 11
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Laura Bush was first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. In November 2001, she gave the first presidential radio address on the treatment of women under the Taliban.
On Tuesday afternoon, Malala Yousafzai
was a 14-year-old girl riding home on a school bus. Now, after a masked
gunman apparently boarded her bus, asked for her by name and shot her in the head and neck,
she is fighting for her life. Malala was targeted by the Pakistani
Taliban because for the past three years she has spoken out for the
rights of all girls to become educated. After this despicable shooting,
a Taliban spokesman said that his organization considers Malala’s
crusade for education rights an “obscenity” and accused her of
“propagating” Western culture. If she survives, the group promises to
try again to kill her.
Eleven years ago, America awoke to the barbaric mind-set of the
Taliban. Its regime in Afghanistan was dedicated in part to the brutal
repression and abject subjugation of women. Women were not allowed to
work or attend school. Taliban religious police patrolled the streets,
beating women who might venture out alone, who were not dressed
“properly” or who dared to laugh out loud. Women could not wear shoes
that made too much noise, and their fingernails were ripped out for the
“crime” of wearing nail polish.
Today, the Taliban has been pushed back, but it still operates in parts of Afghanistan
and in the northern and western regions of Pakistan along the Afghan
border. The city where Malala was shot, Mingora, is in Pakistan’s Swat
province, which has been on the front lines of the battle against
Taliban extremists. In 2007, the Taliban gained control of Swat, only to
be largely pushed out
in the summer of 2009 by a Pakistani military offensive. During its
time in power, the Taliban closed and destroyed girls’ schools, leaving
behind little more than piles of rubble; enforced its own interpretation
of sharia law; and banned the playing of music in cars.
At age 11, to protest what was happening in her homeland, Malala began to write about her experiences, producing a blog
for the BBC’s Urdu-language service. She described wearing plain
clothes, not uniforms, so that no one would know she was attending
school and wrote about how she and other girls “hid our books under our
shawls.” Nonetheless, after the Taliban forced the closure of her
school, Malala had no choice but to stay home and suspend her education.
In another blog entry, she wrote: “Five more schools have been
destroyed, one of them was near my house. I am quite surprised, because
these schools were closed so why did they also need to be destroyed?” A
few weeks later she wrote, “I am sad watching my uniform, school bag and
geometry box” and “hurt” because her brothers could go to school while
she could not.
Malala had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but
recently she became interested in politics and speaking out for the
rights of children. In 2011, Malala was a nominee for the International Children’s Peace Prize,
which lauded her bravery in standing up for girls’ educational rights
amid rising fundamentalism at a time when few adults would do the same.
Last year, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.
These are the accomplishments of the young girl who so terrified the
Taliban.
Condemnations of the attempt on Malala’s life have been swift and powerful. The U.S. government called it “barbaric” and “cowardly.” Pakistan’s prime minister said, “Malala is like my daughter, and yours too.
If that mind-set prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?” And the
Pakistani army’s chief general said that the Taliban has “failed to
grasp that she is not only an individual, but an icon of courage.”
Speaking
out after an atrocious act, however, isn’t enough. Malala inspires us
because she had the courage to defy the totalitarian mind-set others
would have imposed on her. Her life represents a brighter future for
Pakistan and the region. We must speak up before these acts occur, work
to ensure that they do not happen again, and keep our courage to
continue to resist the ongoing cruelty and barbarism of the Taliban.
Malala Yousafzai refused to look the other way. We owe it to her courage
and sacrifice to do the same.
Malala is the same age as another
writer, a diarist, who inspired many around the world. From her hiding
place in Amsterdam, Anne Frank wrote, “How wonderful it is that nobody
need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Today,
for Malala and the many girls like her, we need not and cannot wait. We
must improve their world. Washington Post