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."
I am a Métis from Northern Alberta. My father, Mervin Bellerose,
co-authored the Métis Settlements Act of 1989, which was passed by the
Alberta legislature in 1990 and cemented our land rights. I founded
Canadians For Accountability, a native rights advocacy group, and I am
an organizer and participant in the Idle No More movement in Calgary.
And I am a Zionist.
...My people, the Métis, came to Alberta after the American Revolution,
at the government’s request, to prevent the settling of the Americans in
western Canada. We settled the land and followed the white man’s
rules. But we were eventually evicted, our homes given to white
pioneers. No one wanted us. We were forced to live in hiding, on road
allowances, in the bush. We had no rights, and we were killed out of
hand, as "nuisances". Exile fractured our nation. Our people wandered
with no hope and no home. Then, in the mid 1900's, our leaders managed
to secure land for us, not the land we had wanted but land that would
nonetheless allow us to build a better future. We took it, built our
settlements and formed a government to improve the lives of our people.
We still have many problems to solve, of course, but we also have more
educated people than ever and are slowly becoming self-sufficient, as
our leaders envisioned. In this, the Jewish people and the Métis have
walked the same road.
The Jews also suffered genocide and were expelled from their homeland.
They were also rejected by everyone and forced to wander. Like us, they
rebelled against imperial injustice when necessary and, despite their
grievances, strived for peace whenever possible. Like us they were
given a tiny sliver of their land back after centuries of suffering and
persecution, land that nobody else had wanted to call home until then.
Like us, they took that land despite their misgivings and forged a
nation from a fractured and wounded people. And like us, they
consistently show a willingness to compromise for the good of their
people.
...Many claim that we Natives have more in common with the Palestinians,
that their struggle is our struggle. Beyond superficial similarities,
nothing could be farther from the truth. Beyond the facile co-opting of
our cause, the comparison with the Palestinians is absolutely
untenable. It trivializes our suffering.
...For 65 years, the Palestinians have convinced the world that they are
worse off than many other stateless nations, despite all evidence to
the contrary. The Palestinians claim to have been colonized but it was
their own leaders who refused to negotiate and who lost the land that
they want by waging a needless war on Israel. They claim to have faced
genocide but they suffered no such thing: their population has exploded
from a few hundred thousand in 1948 to over 4 million today. They claim deprivation but their elites live in luxury while their people live in ramshackle poverty.
What’s more, the Palestinian leaders have never been interested in a
peaceful solution for their people. They were given several
opportunities to have their own state – for the first time in history --
and refused each time, choosing war over peace because the offers were
never deemed sufficient. They have persistently used terrorism to bring
attention to their cause and their leaders have celebrated the killing
of civilians by naming parks and schools after murderers. And any
Palestinian that questions the maximalist rhetoric or who suggests real
compromise is immediately ostracized, branded a traitor, or killed.
The Palestinians are not like us. Their fight is not our fight. We
natives believe in bringing about change peacefully, and we refuse to be
affiliated with anyone who engages in violence targeting civilians. I
cannot remain silent and allow the Palestinians to gain credibility at
our expense by claiming commonality with us. I cannot stand by while
they trivialize our plight by tying it to theirs, which is largely
self-inflicted. Our population of over 65 million was violently reduced to a mere 10 million, a slaughter unprecedented in human history.
To compare that in whatever way to the Palestinians’ story is deeply offensive to me.
The Palestinians did lose the land they claim is theirs, but they were
repeatedly given the opportunity to build their state on it and to
partner with the Jews -- and they persistently refused peace overtures
and chose war. We were never given that chance. We never made that choice.