Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
Enough is Enough: The Crusades & The Jihad Are Not Equivalents
Thursday, September 12, 2013
American Catholic : The
latest and most appalling example appears in the NY Times, courtesy of a
Nicholas D. Kristof. Among the many absurdities one can find in this column, including definitive claims as to the intentions and desires of Osama bin Laden, Kristof writes,
Remember also that historically, some of the most
shocking brutality in the region was justified by the Bible, not the
Koran. Crusaders massacred so many men, women and children in parts of
Jerusalem that a Christian chronicler, Fulcher of Chartres, described an
area ankle-deep in blood. While burning Jews alive, the crusaders sang,
āChrist, We Adore Thee.ā
First,
the historical facts: a long ātrain of abusesā, to borrow Jeffersonās
phrase, preceded the launching of the First Crusade in 1096. Since its
very inception, Islam had waged an unremitting war against Christianity.
It conquered and subjugated centuries-old Christian societies in the
Middle East and North Africa. After sweeping through France, the Muslim
advance was finally checked by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in
732. Following this, Muslim aggression against Christians continued in
southern Italy, with the conquest of Sicily in 827. Resistance to these
repeated acts of aggression was not characterized as a ācrusadeā, but
simply necessary self-defense. Over the next centuries, the Seljuq Turks, who converted to Islam, waged war against the Eastern Christian Byzantine Empire. At the Battle of Manzikert
in 1071, the Turks wiped out the Byzantine army, leaving Emperor
Alexius Commenus helpless before a relentless and determined foe. Not
long after this, he sent envoys to Pope Urban II pleading for military
aid. The Council of Clermont was called by the pope in 1095, in which he
addressed the clergy, knights, and commoners who had assembled. To the
knights especially his words were both reproving and encouraging:
You, the oppressers of children, plunderers of widows;
you, guilty of homicide, of sacrilege, robbers of anotherās rights; you
who await the pay of thieves for the shedding of Christian blood ā as
vultures smell fetid corpses, so do you sense battles from afar and rush
to them eagerly. Verily, this is the worst way, for it is utterly
removed from God! if, forsooth, you wish to be mindful of your souls,
either lay down the girdle of such knighthood, or advance boldly, as
knights of Christ, and rush as quickly as you can to the defence of the
Eastern Church. For she it is from whom the joys of your whole salvation
have come forth, who poured into your mouths the milk of divine wisdom,
who set before you the holy teachings of the Gospels.
What was at stake was nothing less than the preservation of
Christianity, and the civilization which had, even if imperfectly,
sought to embody its teachings in the world. This was also evidenced by
the increasingly hostility to Christians still living in the Levant (the
Holy Land), as well as those who went on pilgrimage; in 1009, the
Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher ā in an act the Catholic Encyclopedia
rightly calls a āfit of madnessā - razed to the ground. This was
followed by an even broader campaign against Christianity throughout the
Levant, culminating in the destruction of thousands of Christian
churches. Read it all at the American Catholic.......
