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."
The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise Under Islamic Rule
Friday, May 13, 2016
Source: The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise The existence of a Muslim kingdom in Medieval Spain where different
races and religions lived harmoniously in multicultural tolerance is one
of today’s most widespread myths.
University professors teach it.
Journalists repeat it. Tourists visiting the Alhambra accept it. It has
reached the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, which sings the
virtues of the “pan-confessional humanism” of Andalusian Spain (July 18,
2003).
The Economist echoes the belief: “Muslim rulers of the past were
far more tolerant of people of other faiths than were Catholic ones.
For example, al-Andalus’s multi-cultural, multi-religious states ruled
by Muslims gave way to a Christian regime that was grossly intolerant
even of dissident Christians, and that offered Jews and Muslims a choice
only between being forcibly converted and being expelled (or worse).”
1.
The problem with this belief is that it is historically unfounded, a
myth. The fascinating cultural achievements of Islamic Spain cannot
obscure the fact that it was never an example of peaceful convivencia. The history of Islamic Spain begins, of course, with violent
conquest. Helped by internal dissension among the Visigoths, in 711 A.D.
Islamic warriors entered Christian Spain and defeated the Visigothic
king Rodrigo.
These Muslims were a mixture of North African Berbers, or
“Moors,” who made up the majority, and Syrians, all led by a small
number of Arabs proper (from the Arabian peninsula). The Crónica Bizantina of 741 A.D., the Crónica mozárabe of 754 A.D. and the illustrations to the thirteenth-century Cantigas de Santa María chronicle
the brutality with which the Muslims subjugated the Catholic
population. From then on, the best rulers of al- Andalus were autocrats
who through brute force kept the peace in the face of religious,
dynastic, racial, and other divisions.