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 Taliban are indefatigably
committed to their jihad to regain control of all of Afghanistan and
impose Sharia fully in that country.
This stance will not allow for the
possibility of their coexisting peacefully with the Afghan government
and remaining within its own sphere of influence while allowing that
government to operate within its own domains. The jihad imperative is
maximalist; the Qur’an calls upon Muslims to fight until “religion is
all for Allah” (8:39).
If a jihad group enters into peace talks, it is
not for the purpose of concluding a peace agreement in the Western
sense, that is, with a view toward establishing the basis for an
indefinite cessation of hostilities. On the contrary, it only views such
talks as a means to attain its goals, and if the talks do not turn out
to serve that purpose, they are to be ended.
What’s
more, Muhammad’s breaking of a treaty he made with the pagan Quraysh,
the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah when his forces had grown stronger and he no
longer needed it became the paradigm for all treaty-making under Islamic
law. If the Taliban do enter into an agreement with the United States,
they will break it as soon as it has served the purpose they envision
for it.
There is, however, a
third alternative between withdrawing and entering into a spurious and
fruitless peace agreement with the Taliban: leaving with no peace
agreement, and working to contain the jihad threat from spreading beyond
Afghanistan. But John Bolton is gone from the administration, the
advocates of a peace agreement with the Taliban appear to be in the
ascendancy, and no one seems to be considering that option.
