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."
Muhammad has had it with the Muslim Brotherhood. From
the moment we meet, it takes the 30-something Egyptian three minutes,
tops, before he expresses his crashing disappointment with his
government. “On June 30, you will see another revolution,” he
predicts, as we approach the Egyptian Museum. “Millions of Egyptians
will fill Tahrir Square and other squares around the country. We want
the Muslim Brothers out!”As we admire sarcophagi, masks, and mummies in this legendary palace of
antiquities, Muhammad barely can contain his frustration with current
events.
“The Muslim Brothers,” as he and others here call them, “have craved
power for 85 years. Now they have it, and they cannot run anything. We
were happy to be rid of Mubarak, but right now, we would take him back.”
Egyptians rallied for 18 days in early 2011 until their autocratic
president stood down. Now 85, Hosni Mubarak is on trial for corruption and complicity in killing protesters during the uprising. Muhammad
is in the tourism industry. (Like others in this article, his identity
is obscured for his protection.) “I used to work four days a week,”
Muhammad laments. “Now, I work four days a month.”
Thanks to President Mohamed Morsi’s economic mismanagement, Egyptians have seen unemployment rise from 8.9 percent when Mubarak got booted to 13.2 percent today. Annual GDP
growth, which was 5 percent in 2010, slowed to 3.3 percent in 2012
(although it was just 2.2 percent last quarter), according to
TradingEconomics.com. Foreign-exchange reserves have plunged from $36 billion in December 2010 to $16 billion last month. No surprise, the Egyptian pound,
which was 5.5 to the U.S. dollar when Mubarak resigned, now is 7.0.
While this exchange rate dazzles visiting Americans, Egyptians wilt
beneath this 27 percent loss in buying power.
The Muslim Brothers’ economic agenda seems to involve printing money; borrowing from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar; and awaiting a new $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Egyptians also are coping with energy shortages. These include rolling blackouts and gasoline lines that Deya Abaza describes in Ahram Online as “a recurring feature of Egypt’s post-revolutionary landscape.” “My
best year was 2010,” Muhammad says. “I was saving money to buy a house.
Now, I have lost one third of my savings. My dreams have been crushed.” One
educated Anglophone Egyptian considered her prospects so grim that she
recently used Craigslist to seek someone to marry her and whisk her
overseas.
“Very big. Very big,” one cabbie predicts about June 30
as we fight rush-hour traffic. He continues in what one observer calls
Earth’s lingua franca: Broken English. “Morsi out! Mubarak no good.
Morsi no good. Same same.” The U.S. embassy will close that day, “in anticipation of demonstrations that may turn violent.” Continued here..........
