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 Source of Evil - Iran’s nefarious influence can be seen throughout the Middle East, most recently in Gaza by Mitchell A. Belfer
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The
victims of the latest Israel–Gaza flare-up have been buried, the wounded
treated, and the damage totaled up. As the consequences of the conflict
are being dealt with, it is now time to address the causes. There is a
bigger picture to be examined here: Gaza, like so many other Middle
East conflicts, was the handiwork of an irresponsible Iran.
The Islamic Republic is destabilizing the entire Middle East. Gaza,
Syria, an insurgency in Bahrain, a war of attrition in Yemen, and
dysfunction in Sudan, Lebanon, and Iraq all reek of Iranian
interference. Iran is not the only destabilizing (f)actor; the region is
replete with competing groups, states, and contrasting ideological
movements. But Iran is the largest, and owing to its “Twelver”
ideology, its nuclear ambitions, its irresponsible threats, and its use
of force — internally and externally — it must be seen as a regional,
if not international, threat. Few, however, seem willing to expose Iran as the culprit behind the
recent turbulence; its role is treated as an open secret. So beguiled is
the international community by Iran’s nuclearization and by the
rhetorical games it plays with Israel that many other of Iran’s
destructive policies slip beneath the radar. Take Sudan, Iran’s
arms-trafficking hub. Weapons from Iran enter Port Sudan and slither
their way north through Egypt to Gaza, or west to the Maghreb, or remain
in Sudan. Iran is also engaged in Shia missionary activities, paying
for Shia conversions, while cozying up to Sudan’s president, Omar
al-Bashir, the architect of the Darfur genocide. In Syria, Iran’s
deployment of Hezbollah fighters, al-Quds advisers, and untold amounts
of money and weapons will ensure that Assad’s fall from power is long
and bloody. As for Bahrain, Iran is consolidating its power on the
island and training Hezbollah and the so-called Sacred Defense in the
tactics of asymmetrical warfare — the dark arts of killing civilians by
bomb. Why are Iranian fingers spoiling so many pies? Its superiority
complex, coupled with its colonizing ideology, makes it feel destined to
be a regional superpower. Yet despite its power quest, Iran is not
seeking transformation so much as it’s trying to defend an untenable
status quo. It does not want regional change; it is afraid of that. It
expects that change will, if unchecked, knock on its own door. If Israel and Hamas sue for peace, if the Assad regime is toppled and
Lebanon maintains its stability, and if Bahrain’s reforms end its
recent conflagrations, Iranian regional power will be sapped and its
ability to deflect public opinion from its mounting domestic problems
will be reduced. Iranians are weary of having to endure yet another year
of economic hardships, a valueless currency, enormous taxation on
gasoline, and a lack of political liberty. So Ahmadinejad, the
ayatollahs, the Basij militia, al-Quds, and the Revolutionary Guards are
clutching at straws. They want to keep the region festering so they can
stay politically aloft. They need to keep it in a turbulent state so
they can imprison their critics at home. In the months preceding the Gaza fighting, there were indications
that Hamas and Israel were approaching a permanent truce. Gershon
Baskin, a key Israeli negotiator in the prisoner swap that freed Gilad
Shalit after five years, reportedly had been given a completed draft
agreement just hours before the latest conflict erupted. Why then did
battle ensue? Hamas’s 2011–12 evacuation from Damascus, after citing the regime’s
murder of civilians, and Iran’s unabashed reinforcement of Assad exposed
an ideological tension, resulting in the former’s decision to end its
support to Hamas, estimated as high as $20 million a month. Hamas
responded by dissolving three paramilitary units that were directed by
Tehran and by establishing a new, more unified command, the al-Aqsa
Protectors, based out of Gaza’s interior ministry. Iran was not about to
give up its Israel pressure point, however, and instead of taking that
$20 million per month and reinvesting it in its own national economy, it
diverted the funding to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an enemy
of Hamas and Israel.
It is PIJ that launched an attack against an Israeli armored
personnel carrier, wounding four and initiating the latest episode of
violence. PIJ fired the first dozen rockets into Israel, and Israel
escalated. Unwilling or unable to distinguish between groups, Israel
punished Hamas, assassinated Ahmed al-Jabari, chief of the Gaza security
wing of Hamas, and hit some 25 targets of opportunity. The war was on.
PIJ then slipped into the background as Israel and Hamas faced off. Such nuances are lost in the press. Spectators saw Iranian rockets
soaring to Israeli targets and assumed a continued Iran-Hamas
relationship. Sure, Hamas deployed Iranian-built Fajr-3 and Fajr-5
rockets. But that was what they had on hand; they had been delivered
before the Hamas-Iran split. The idea that the origin of weapons
indicates a political affiliation is simply misleading. Consider that
the second-most-prevalent rockets that Hamas fired — and the ones that
caused the most damage to Israel — were Russian-made Grads. If the
weapons-origin argument were valid, that would mean Russia was also
supportive of the Hamas campaign. It wasn’t, of course. No, the rockets that Hamas held in its stocks were from 2009–10. Although Israel’s interdiction of the MV Francop,
which contained an Iranian consignment of some 11,000 rockets and
mortars, was a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s arms trafficking, it
was reported that two similar-sized vessels successfully landed in Port
Sudan in December that same year, and four others during 2010. National Review1 2Next >
