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."
Fencing between Saudi Arabia and Yemen An Anglican church together with some would-be 'fashionable yet
politically aware' types, unveiled an installation in London's city
center last week, a mock-up of the walled part of Israel's security
barrier -- and invited members of the public to write what the
organizers presumably anticipated would be anti-'Zionist', anti-Israel
graffiti on it.
The wall is the main attraction of the church's
ideologically poisoned Christmastime festival "Bethlehem Unwrapped,"
which runs until January 5, 2014. Anyone who travels to see this exercise might also like to take along
the information below: a lengthy (though probably incomplete) list of
security walls, barriers, and fences around the world, most of them
maintained to prevent terrorism, amongst other rampant evils, yet none
of them obsessively given attention by media outlets and by celebrity
demagogues like Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel. Kurds protest a new border fence between Turkey and Syria There appear to be no replicas in London of these 50+ other walls or
barriers, which nevertheless, according to St. James's Church website
'...divide and confine peoples, restricting free movement and dominating
the imagination of those who live behind them.' (The remainder of the
paragraph sounds like a parody of Roger Waters himself: 'We believe that
bridges not walls are the only lasting foundation for peace. ...We join
with people of all faiths in praying for the day when the Wall will
come down.') Saudi Arabia, for example, is almost entirely walled in (all seven of
its land borders and two of its three coastlines) and nobody bats an
eyelid. The Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France
incorporates a range of security measures that includes surveillance,
electrified fencing, and a permanent military presence on its French
site, in order to root out potential terrorists, smugglers, and illegal
immigrants; no-one is suggesting that such measures are anything
apart from plain common sense. (List of security walls around the world at link).
Fencing between Saudi Arabia and YemenKurds protest a new border fence between Turkey and Syria
