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."
Jihad Watch : At Jihad Watch we keep asking that question. Let’s refresh our memories about how Turkey has behaved under Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
President Erdogan has repeatedly attacked the Kurds in Syria, who —
whatever reservations some may have about them – have been our closest
and most effective allies against ISIS. He has carried on a campaign of
vilification against the United States for refusing to hand over
Fethulleh Gulen to Erdogan’s “justice.”
He has discharged tens of
thousands of people – judges, lawyers, professors, civil servants,
military officers – whom he wildly accused of being part of the failed
coup in July 2016. Turkey continues to jail more journalists than any
other country on earth. Erdogan has drawn closer to Putin and to Russia,
and gone ahead with his pledge to buy a Russian S-400 surface-to-air
missile defense system, which U.S. and NATO officials fear would lead to
security breaches (for the Russians could test how the S-400 performed
against NATO missiles supplied by Turkey, and tweak their defense system
accordingly).
He kept the American pastor Andrew Brunson imprisoned for
two years, after a Turkish court absurdly convicted Brunson, the pastor
of the Izmir Resurrection Church, a tiny congregation with 25 members —
and gave him a 20-year prison sentence on assorted trumped-up charges,
including that of being a C.I.A. spy and a member of the Kurdish
“terrorist” group, the PKK, and worst of all, of being a “Gulenist”
operative. Brunson was finally freed, most begrudgingly, and only after
terrific American economic pressure (threats of more boycotts and
tariffs) on Ankara. Erdogan’s plan was apparently to trade Brunson for
Gulen; the Americans would have none of it.
