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."
Ultra-liberals and the futility of discourse - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, August 13, 2018
Malaysiakini : “The political nature of man made it highly unlikely that a
society designed to meet regularly would remain peaceable. "The way to
make friends quarrel is to pit them in disputation under the public
eye," Jefferson said.” ― Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
COMMENT | Truth be told, I like
Rafizi Ramli. Sure, we have had a very public spat but the reality is
that for whatever reasons, he often kicks the Pakatan Harapan regime in
the nut sack and more often than not, gets pilloried for it on social
media. The internal politics of PKR, I have very little interest in. No
matter who runs the good ship, PKR politicians in Harapan will not stray
too far from mainstream Malay politics even though they, like the DAP,
claim to be a multi-racial party.
Malay establishment politicians have to pay attention to certain
agendas and non-Malay establishment politicians have to enable such
dictates. It does not have to be this way but it is easier to retain
power this way. Recently, Rafizi labelled those hounding Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail on the whole child marriage fiasco as ultra liberals who "focus on the one issue".Not nice, Rafizi.
Dismissing these critics, while saying these ultra liberals are not
responsible for the poor, while the DPM, was, is a strange way of
deflecting from the criticisms of the cautious response of the DPM on
this issue. Firstly, child marriage, as in marriages between children and adults, is normalising sex with children. Furthermore, it is normally the “poor” children who are exploited in
this manner. Also, this idea that ultra liberals are single-issue
advocates is rather bizarre, because it's like saying that rights groups
who advocate on a specific subject do not care about anything else –
the poor – because they advocate for specific issues.
