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."
BCF : In the years following the Battle of Manzikert (1071), which saw the Seljuk Turks defeat the Eastern Roman Empire and conquer that ancient bastion of Christianity, Anatolia (modern day Turkey), immense persecutions of Christians followed.
Whether an anonymous Georgian chronicler tells of how “holy churches served as stables for their horses,” the “priests were immolated during the Holy Communion itself,” the “virgins defiled, the youths circumcised, and the infants taken away,” or whether Anna Comnena, the princess at Constantinople, tells of how “cities were obliterated, lands were plundered, and the whole of Rhomaioi [Anatolia] was stained with Christian blood, ” it was the same scandalous tale of woe. Enter the First Crusade, which, as historian Peter Frankopan shows,
was first and foremost a result of the attack on Eastern Christendom.
As historian Thomas Madden, paraphrasing Pope Urban II’s famous call at
Clermont in 1095, puts it,
“The message was clear: Christ was crucified again in the persecution
of his faithful and the defilement of his sanctuaries.” Both needed
rescuing; both offered an opportunity to fulfill one of Christ’s two
greatest commandments: “Love God with all your heart” and “love your
neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Christians from all around
Europe, under the leadership of the Franks, hearkened to the call and
took the cross. After a long and arduous journey into Turkic-controlled
Asia Minor -- which saw the crusaders meet and defeat their Muslim foe
in at least two encounters -- by October 1097, the Europeans were at and
besieging the walls of Antioch.
Once
one of Christendom’s greatest cities, Antioch was now a shadow of its
former self. Its Turkic governor, Yaghi-Siyan, had long been persecuting
the resident Christians, who still made the majority, including by
increasing the amount of jizya-tribute,
launching arbitrary wholesale persecutions, forcing Christians to
convert to Islam, and converting Antioch’s ancient cathedral into a
horse stable.
