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."
EOTW : Gazans shout Hamas slogans against Egypt ban, as Hamas leaders call breakdown in relations 'a real disaster.'
(INN)
Thousands of Gazans demonstrated on Thursday night at the border
between Gaza and Egypt, in protest against a decision by an Egyptian
court to define the Al-Qassam Brigades - the "military wing" of Hamas -
as a terror organization. Palestine newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Hamas, says that
protesters gathered near the Rafah crossing and waved Hamas flags,
shouted slogans against the Egyptian court's decision and demanded that
Egypt open the border with Gaza. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a speech at the demonstration
that the Egyptian court's decision is "a real disaster because it turns
the tables and sees the occupiers [Israel - ed.] as a friend and the
Palestinian people as a foe." He called the Egyptian judges and members of the media in Egypt a
"pro-Zionist group," which harms Gaza from afar through their actions
and via the Egyptian army. While the Egyptian government of Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim
Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a Gazan offshoot, was friendly with
Hamas, the military-led government that ousted him has cracked down on
the group, which it accuses of an attack on Egyptian police
headquarters, and of planning church bombings in Sinai. Most recently, Egypt accused Hamas of providing the weapons used by
terrorists for two lethal attacks in El-Arish in October, in which
dozens of soldiers were killed. Egypt declared a state of emergency in the Sinai following that attack
and began to create a buffer zone along the border with Gaza, expelling
thousands of residents and demolishing hundreds of homes. Hamas has been particularly indignant over the blacklisting
announcement, however, and another official stated earlier this week
that calling Hamas a "terror group" is "rewriting history."