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."
His death nearly two years
after he was toppled from power was announced this morning by current
President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Reports in Zimbabwe say he died in
hospital with his wife at his side.
Mugabe
had been in frail health, admitted to hospital in early April,
apparently unable to walk and pictured looking extremely frail in photos
alongside his son which may be the last ever taken of him.
Mnangagwa
hailed Mugabe as an 'icon of liberation and said his 'contribution to
the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten'.
Mugabe came to power in 1980 as the founding leader of Zimbabwe after the country became fully independent from British rule.
But
his own rule was marked by murder, bloodshed, torture, persecution of
political opponents, intimidation and vote-rigging on a grand scale and
there was jubilation in the streets of Zimbabwe when he was toppled in
2017.
And under Mugabe's leadership
the economy of a mineral-rich country descended into chaos with
thousands of people reduced to grinding poverty, many of them suffering
from near-starvation and worse.
