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 Martyrs of Otranto - As Pope Francis gave the church 800 new saints, Christians were being persecuted around the world By Nina Shea
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Pope
Francis celebrated his first canonizations in the course of his Mass in
St. Peter’s Square last Sunday, giving the Catholic Church over 800 new
saints. All but two (a Colombian nun and a Mexican nun) were the
“martyrs of Otranto,” who were beheaded for their faith after Turkish
Muslims invaded their southern-Italian port city in 1480. In the pope’s words,
“They had refused to renounce their faith and died confessing the risen
Christ.” According to some historical records, while the 800 were being
executed, a Turk by the name of Bersabei was inspired to convert. He
too suffered martyrdom, impaled by his own comrades-in-arms. Christians
of all faith traditions have long been persecuted in many countries,
but today in the Muslim world, where Christians are often the largest
non-Muslim minority, the persecution is accelerating and spreading. Pope
Francis had met with the Coptic pope, Tawadros II of Alexandria, just
two days before, and no doubt he was praying for the mounting number of
Coptic martyrs in Egypt, with whom, he had said, Catholics are united in
the “ecumenism of suffering,” This would include the two killed and
seven dozen wounded as they were leaving St. Mark’s Cathedral in
Alexandria on April 7 and also the four whose funeral had just taken
place inside the cathedral, who had been murdered in a Muslim pogrom the
previous day. It would also include those languishing in prison for
their faith, such as Nadia Mohamed Ali and her seven children, all of
whom were sentenced by an Egyptian court to 15 years’ imprisonment
earlier this year for converting to Christianity. Another Christian
woman, Demyana Emad, a 23-year-old primary-school teacher, was jailed
last week for “insulting Islam” in her classroom — only the latest
example of the Islamist government’s blasphemy prosecutions, typically
of Christians.
Pope Francis probably also had in mind the ten killed in a church
bombing in Nigeria on the Sunday before the canonizations, May 5, and
the thousands of other Christians slaughtered, many of them while they
prayed in their churches, in recent years by the Islamist group Boko
Haram and other Muslim militants there. Nigeria is the country with the
most new Christian martyrs — it is estimated that 900 Christians were killed there in 2012 for being Christian. These murders are largely carried out with impunity.
In
Tanzania, meanwhile, a woman, a teenager, and a child were killed in a
May 5 church bombing in the city of Arusha, three months after Catholic
priest Evarist Mushi and Pentecostal pastor Mathew Kachira were shot and beheaded, respectively, by Muslim extremists outside their churches.
In
Somalia, the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab shot and killed Fartun
Omar on April 13. She was the widow of Mursal Isse Siad, a Christian
convert who was slain for leaving Islam in December; as Morning Star News
points out, her death leaves the couple’s five children orphaned.
Al-Shabaab is also thought to have murdered Ahmed Ali Jimale, a
42-year-old Christian pharmacist and father of four, as he stood outside
his house in February. Last November, 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose, a
Christian convert, was beheaded, reportedly for leaving Islam.
As Boko
Haram has done in Nigeria, al-Shabaab has vowed to eradicate
Christianity from its country and establish a sharia state. While
Francis was canonizing the new saints on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s press
was reporting that a Saudi court had sentenced a Lebanese man to six
years in prison and 300 lashes for encouraging a Saudi woman to convert
to Christianity. The woman herself fled to Sweden with the help of
another man, who was then sentenced to two years and 200 lashes. Saudi
Arabia prohibits its nationals, all presumed to be Muslim, from
converting to Christianity or any other religion and can punish converts
with death for apostasy. Pages 1 2 Next › National Review
