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."
Surprise! After secret talks, tiny Vermont town gets 100 Muslim migrants
Friday, May 13, 2016
āLouras made no apologies for excluding the public from the planning.
If the proposal had been floated earlier, the mayor said, the debate
would have become āabout themā ā meaning the Syrians, their culture, and
possible links to terrorism ā instead of whether the city had the means
to accommodate the refugees.
ā Yes, and we canāt possibly have a public discussion about whether the
migrants have possible links to terrorism. That would be
āIslamophobic.ā āāThe benefits, economically and culturally, that we will recognize
is exactly what the community needs at this time,ā said Louras, the
grandson of a Greek immigrant who fled the Ottoman Turks a century ago.ā
It has almost certainly not entered Lourasā mind that any of the people
he is bringing to his town might share the world view and aspirations
and goals of those who drove his grandparents out of Ottoman Turkey.
Inconceivable! Meanwhile, back in the real world, Ahmad al-Mohammed and one other of the jihadis who murdered 130 people in Paris in November 2015 had just entered Europe as refugees.
In February 2015, the Islamic State boasted it would soon flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. And the Lebanese Education Minister said in September 2015 that there were 20,000 jihadis among the refugees in camps in his country. Meanwhile, 80% of migrants who have come to Europe claiming to be fleeing the war in Syria arenāt really from Syria at all.āVermont city prepares for Syrian refugees with welcome, wariness,ā by Craig F. Walker, Boston Globe, May 13, 2016 :
