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."
To the Slaughter - British lions come up lambs in Woolwich. By Mark Steyn
Saturday, May 25, 2013
On Wednesday, Drummer Lee Rigby of the Royal
Regiment of Fusiliers, a man who had served Queen and country honorably
in the hell of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, emerged from his
barracks on Wellington Street, named after the Duke thereof, in
southeast London. Minutes later, he was hacked to death in broad
daylight and in full view of onlookers by two men with machetes who
crowed “Allahu akbar!” as they dumped his carcass in the middle of the
street like so much road kill. As grotesque as this act of savagery was, the aftermath was even more
unsettling. The perpetrators did not, as the Tsarnaev brothers did in
Boston, attempt to escape. Instead, they held court in the street
gloating over their trophy, and flagged down a London bus to demand the
passengers record their triumph on film. As the crowd of bystanders
swelled, the remarkably urbane savages posed for photographs with the
remains of their victim while discoursing on the iniquities of Britain
toward the Muslim world. Having killed Drummer Rigby, they were killing
time: It took 20 minutes for the somnolent British constabulary to show
up. And so television viewers were treated to the spectacle of a young
man, speaking in the vowels of south London, chatting calmly with his
“fellow Britons” about his geopolitical grievances and apologizing to
the ladies present for any discomfort his beheading of Drummer Rigby
might have caused them, all while drenched in blood and still wielding
his cleaver. If you’re thinking of getting steamed over all that, don’t. Simon Jenkins, the former editor of the Times of London, cautioned against “mass hysteria” over “mundane acts of violence.” That’s easy for him to say. Woolwich is an unfashionable part of
town, and Sir Simon is unlikely to find himself there of an afternoon
stroll. Drummer Rigby had less choice in the matter. Being jumped by
barbarians with machetes is certainly “mundane” in Somalia and Sudan,
but it’s the sort of thing that would once have been considered somewhat
unusual on a sunny afternoon in south London — at least as unusual as,
say, blowing up eight-year-old boys at the Boston Marathon. It was
“mundane” only in the sense that, as at weddings and kindergarten
concerts, the reflexive reaction of everybody present was to get out
their cell phones and start filming.
Once, long ago, I was in an
altercation where someone pulled a switchblade, and ever since have been
mindful of Jimmy Hoffa’s observation that he’d rather jump a gun than a
knife. Nevertheless, there is a disturbing passivity to this scene: a
street full of able-bodied citizens being lectured to by blood-soaked
murderers who have no fear that anyone will be minded to interrupt their
diatribes. In fairness to the people of Boston, they were ordered to
“shelter in place” by the governor of Massachusetts. In Woolwich, a
large crowd of Londoners apparently volunteered to “shelter in place,”
instinctively. Consider how that will play when these guys’ jihadist
snuff video is being hawked around the bazaars of the Muslim world.
Behold the infidels, content to be bystanders in their own fate.
This
passivity set the tone for what followed. In London as in Boston, the
politico-media class immediately lapsed into the pneumatic multiculti
Tourette’s that seems to be a chronic side effect of excess
diversity-celebrating: No Islam to see here, nothing to do with Islam,
all these body parts in the street are a deplorable misinterpretation of
Islam. The BBC’s Nick Robinson accidentally described the men as being
“of Muslim appearance,” but quickly walked it back lest impressionable
types get the idea that there’s anything “of Muslim appearance” about a
guy waving a machete and saying “Allahu akbar.” A man is on TV dripping
blood in front of a dead British soldier and swearing “by Almighty Allah
we will never stop fighting you,” yet it’s the BBC reporter who’s
apologizing for “causing offence.” To David Cameron, Drummer Rigby’s
horrific end was “not just an attack on Britain and on the British way
of life, it was also a betrayal of Islam. . . . There is nothing in
Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.” Pages 1 2 Next › Continue to Page 2 of the National Review
