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."
The
funniest news item last week was also, if you think about it, the
scariest: FARS, Iran’s quasi-official news agency, ran the headline:
“Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama.” The story, datelined Tehran, cited no source, but a little digging established that it had been lifted word for word from the Onion,
which FARS’s cracker-jack government reporters failed to recognize as a
satirical publication. Yes indeed, the 21st century will be so much
more exciting if these guys get nukes.What also should have inspired both levity and fear last week: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech
at the United Nations. “Thousands of years have passed since the
children of Adam (peace be upon him) started to settle down in various
parts of Earth,” the Iranian president instructed the General Assembly.
“The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of
history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the
self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the
Devil.” If that sounds to you like the ramblings of a deranged cult member
with ambitions to “manage the world,” you’re obviously not a member of
the mainstream media. Most reporters put a respectful and even positive
spin on Ahmadinejad’s remarks. Time magazine, for example, reported
that Ahmadinejad “preached an airy, utopian egalitarianism,” employing
“the messianic rhetoric that animates political discourse in the Islamic
Republic.” Political discourse in the Islamic Republic? Does Time not know that Iran is a police state? According to the New York Times,
Ahmadinejad “stuck largely to spiritual and moral themes,” delivering a
“lecture about the need for a fairer world order.” Oh yeah: Old Mahmoud
is a very spiritual and moral guy with a keen sense of fairness.
Reuters said
Ahmadinejad painted a “gloomy picture of a world driven by greed rather
than moral values.” Does Reuters have any idea how much oil money
Iran’s rulers have stuffed into their own pockets, and how much of the
Iranian economy is controlled by the Gestapo-like Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps? If so, should that not have been mentioned? At one point — a point any clear-eyed reporter would have seen as
newsworthy — Ahmadinejad cast himself in the role of biblical prophet:
“God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness, a man who loves people
and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is
named Imam Al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ
and the righteous. . . . He will bless humanity with a spring that puts
an end to our winter of ignorance, poverty, and war with the tidings of a
season of blooming. . . . Long live this spring, long live this spring,
and long live this spring.” The New York Times interpreted that as Ahmajdinejad
“forecasting at length about the peace that will prevail with the
appearance of the religious savior awaited by many faiths.” Really? How
many faiths await the “Imam Al-Mahdi”? How many faiths believe, as
Ahmadinijad does, that this messiah has been hiding since the tenth
century and will reappear in the midst of an apocalyptic holy war, with
Jesus at his side, to establish an Islamic world order? Might Times readers not find Ahmadinejad’s religious beliefs relevant? Scant attention was paid to Ahmadinejad’s repeated denunciations of “capitalists” and “Zionists.” The Guardian, a British newspaper, headlined: “Ahmadinejad avoids controversy in low-key speech.” CNN reported,
“European delegates got an unusual reprieve at the United Nations
General Assembly on Wednesday when the Iranian President offered them no
reason to get up and walk out.” Right, because it wouldn’t occur to
European delegates to object to venomous attacks on capitalists and
Zionists; nor did it occur, evidently, to those in the thoroughly modern
major media. It should not go without saying — but did in much of the reporting
last week — that Ahmadinejad represents a regime that tortures and kills
pro-democracy dissidents, hangs homosexuals and those it accuses of
apostasy and blasphemy, incites and threatens genocide of a fellow U.N.
member nation, and has for decades sponsored terrorism from Beirut to
Argentina to Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria to Bulgaria. Almost exactly a
year ago, it was revealed that Washington, D.C., was spared a terrorist
attack when an Iranian plot targeting the Saudi ambassador in a
Georgetown restaurant was foiled by American law-enforcement agents. Once upon a time, Iran may have been, as Ahmadinejad declared, “the
land of glory and beauty; the land of knowledge, culture, wisdom, and
morality; the cradle of philosophy and mysticism; the land of compassion
and light; the land of scientists, scholars, philosophers, masters of
literature, and writers.” But since seizing power in 1979, has the
Islamic revolutionary regime produced anything other than oil and death?
And why are there so few in the media willing to ask such questions,
let alone provide truthful answers? It seems FARS is not the only media
outlet incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction. — Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security. National Review
