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."
Hugh Fitzgerald: Even the Kurds Now Impose a Disguised Jizyah
Monday, August 06, 2018
Jihad Watch : The recent news
that the Kurdish government in northern Iraq has imposed a variety of
special taxes and fees on those who live in the town of Ankawa should
raise an eyebrow or two.
Business owners in Ankawa — but nowhere else within the Kurdish-run
area — will now have to pay a fee to renew their licenses to do
business; before, the license renewal was free. Furthermore, a new 10%
tax on the sale of property in Ankawa replaces a previous 6% tax.
Nowhere else in the Kurdish-run area are such taxes and fees being
imposed.
Since Ankawa is 80% Christian, the only town in Kurdish Iraq
with such a high Christian population, it is clear that the tax is
really meant to fall almost entirely on Christians, without its being
described as such. As one local official admitted, these fees and taxes
constitute a kind of jizyah, the tax imposed on non-Muslims in a Muslim
polity in order that they may continue to observe their religion.
The Kurds have worked closely with the Americans, to whose protection
they owe a lot, and they traditionally have been far more secular than
the Arabs — for Islam, as Anwar Sheikh has said, is the vehicle for Arab
supremacism, and the Kurds have been on the receiving end of that Arab
supremacism (182,000 were murdered by Saddam Hussein’s Arab soldiers
during Operation Anfal). But even for our allies the Kurds, the jizyah
is apparently still to be imposed on the local Christians.
