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."
After his recent electoral victory, it emerged
that Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, had described moderate
Muslim groups as “Uncle Toms”—a notorious racial slur used against
blacks perceived to be subservient to whites, or, in this context,
Muslims who embrace “moderate Islam” as a way of being subservient to
the West.
One of Iran’s highest clerics apparently shares the same convictions. After asserting that “revolutionary Islam is the same as pure Muhammadan Islam,” Ayatollah Tabatabaeinejad recently declared:
Some say our Islam is not revolutionary Islam, but we
must say to them that non-revolutionary Islam is the same as American
Islam. Islam commands us to be firm against the enemies and be kind and
compassionate toward each other and not be afraid of anything….
According to AB News Agency,
“Ayatollah Tabatabaeinejad stated that revolutionary Islam is this same
Islam. It is the Islam that is within us that can create changes. The
warriors realized that Islam is not just prayers and fasting, but rather
they stood against the enemies in support of Islam.”
How many Muslims share these convictions, one from a Sunni living
(and now governing) in London, the other from a Shia living and
governing in the Middle East?
