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."
Egypt’s ‘Moderate’ Despot Mohamed Morsi has deftly built the foundation for his dictatorship by Jonah Goldberg
Thursday, November 29, 2012
What do you call a leader of a theocratic and cultish movement with a deep and clear disdain for democracy who suddenly assumes dictatorial powers? A “moderate,” of course. Ever since the Muslim Brotherhood broke its promise to stay out of Egypt’s presidential election in the aftermath of the revolution, many Western observers have been in denial about what has been going on. In less than half a year, Mohamed Morsi has deftly built the foundation for despotism.
Much as the Nazis brilliantly cast themselves as reformers sweeping away the corruption of the Weimar Republic, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have been using the effort to clean up the detritus of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship as an excuse to consolidate power.
In August, when Islamists attacked Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai (in an apparent effort to force Egypt into a confrontation with Israel), Morsi used the incident as an excuse to replace Mohamed Hussein Tantawi — a Mubarak-era holdover who headed the military and guarded its independence — with officers more pliable to the Brotherhood. “Are we looking at a president determined to dismantle the machine of tyranny,” Alaa Al Aswany, a popular novelist and democratic activist, asked at the time, “or one who is retooling the machine of tyranny to serve his interests?” That question quickly became, at best, rhetorical.Morsi proceeded to purge scores of newspaper editors and publishers, declared himself in charge of the drafting of the new constitution, and all but wore a sandwich board with the words “I’m becoming a dictator!” on it.
As if to hammer it home, last week Morsi announced that his rule was immune to judicial oversight of any kind. He used the failure of the courts to adequately punish Mubarak-era holdovers as an excuse. It was just that — an excuse, not an explanation. Morsi softened his language Monday, but aides insisted that his edict stood. And the Brotherhood’s position remains clear. “If democracy means that people decide who leads them, then [we] accept it; if it means that people can change the laws of Allah and follow what they wish to follow, then it is not acceptable,” the Brotherhood explained on its website in 2005.
Before Morsi was announced the winner of June’s election, the Brotherhood massed in Tahrir Square to make its expectations clear. As one Brotherhood member explained to Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “We win or we die.” Not a particularly democratic motto. Morsi did have another excuse for seizing power last week: The timing was good. Because he had helped broker a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, the White House lavished praise on him. Before the limelight dimmed, Morsi seized the moment to announce that his will is the supreme law of the land.
On The New Republic’s website, Trager posted a devastating condemnation of Morsi’s apologists under the headline “Shame on Anyone Who Ever Thought Mohammad Morsi Was a Moderate.” Trager’s one error is the assumption that no one could possibly still think Morsi’s a moderate after Thursday’s decree. But that’s exactly what many still believe. For instance, on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Time magazine’s Joe Klein spoke for many inside the Beltway when he celebrated Morsi’s role in the cease-fire as a “wonderful sign for the future” because it showed he and the Muslim Brotherhood are “moderates.”
Bear in mind that even as Morsi was pocketing praise from the West for yanking Hamas’s collar, Mohammed Badie, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, made it clear that war to liberate Palestine remained its goal, once Muslim unity is achieved. “Jihad is obligatory.” Apparently, “moderation” in the Middle East has been defined down to not wanting to wage war on Israel right now. On Monday, in response to protests, Morsi met with members of the judiciary. Some reports say he walked back his declaration of supremacy, but that is far from clear. He reaffirmed that the courts cannot veto the constitution being written by Morsi’s Islamist pets. Is there any doubt that the constitution will ratify Morsi’s dictatorship?
Morsi went to prison to defend the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology. He rose through its ranks not because he was a moderate, but because he was committed to the cause and knew how to play the game. The stakes of the game have changed, but anyone who thinks he’s not still committed to the cause is getting played. National Review — Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and the author of The Tyranny of Clichés. You can write to him by e-mail at JonahsColumn@aol.com, or via Twitter @JonahNRO.
