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."
A glutton for punishment, I turned to the Vatican paper, L’Osservatore Romano,
to read the Pope’s exact words, in the original Italian, about the
killing of the indomitable priest in Rouvray.
Here is what the Pope had
to say to the journalists flying with him to Cracow:
“Quando io parlo di ‘guerra’, parlo di guerra sul serio,
non di ‘guerra di religione’, no!”, ha esclamato Bergoglio. Il quale ha
poi precisato: “C’è guerra di interessi, c’è guerra per i soldi, c’è
guerra per le risorse della natura, c’è guerra per il dominio dei
popoli: questa è la guerra. Qualcuno può pensare: ‘Sta parlando di
guerra di religione’: no. Tutte le religioni, vogliamo la pace. La
guerra, la vogliono gli altri. Capito?”.
È tornato poi a parlare di “guerra a pezzi”, parola che secondo lui
inquadra meglio la situazione rispetto al termine “insicurezza”. A
proposito di guerra, ha affermato che “c’era quella del ’14, con i suoi
metodi, poi quella del ’39 – ’45, un’altra grande guerra nel mondo, e
adesso c’è questa. Non è tanto organica, forse, organizzata, sì,
“When I speak of war, I’m talking about real war, not a “war of
religion, no!” the Pope exclaimed. And then he extended his thought
further: “There are wars over interests of all kinds, wars over money,
wars over natural resources, wars fought to establish dominion over
other peoples: those are all real wars. Someone might think: “You’re
talking about wars of religion.” No. All religions want peace. It’s
others [the non-religious] who want war. You understand?”
And he then started to talk about a ”war” being conducted piecemeal,
which according to him better described the current situation than the
term “insecurity,” On the question of war, he maintained that “there was
the war of 1914, with its methods, then the war of 1939-45, another
world war, and now there is this one. It’s an organized campaign,
although not planned at every step.”
Take a minute to rub your eyes in disbelief.
Apparently the Pope,
like the shallowest campus Marxist-Leninist, believes that all wars are
caused by conflict over resources of one kind or another: land, natural
resources, populations to be plundered. Apparently the Pope, the head of
the Catholic Church, cannot believe that religion can ever be the cause
of wars. Apparently the Pope has never heard of the Wars of Religion
with which the Papacy was deeply involved over several centuries.
