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 : The American government announced in mid-December that Pakistan is a
country “of particular concern” given its record on religious freedom.
The Pakistani government reacted angrily, and claimed that the Americans
were “arbitrary” in their judgement. Apparently Islamabad failed to
notice the mountain of material that the American government has
acquired to support its “arbitrary” decision. And the Pakistani
government has not been reading the newspapers, including those in
Pakistan itself. If it did, it would find described a country where
Hindus and Christians endure humiliation, persecution, and sometimes
death, both from their Muslim government, and from Muslims meting out
their vigilante justice against those who have been charged with
“blasphemy.”
That charge of “blasphemy” is particularly terrifying because it is
often made by those who are simply trying to get back at someone over a
personal matter. In one recent case, a Muslim student accused Notan Lal,
his Hindu school principal, of “making abusive remarks about the
Prophet Muhammad”; the principal had to be taken into protective custody
so as to save him from being lynched; his school was ransacked, a Hindu
temple badly damaged, and the homes and shops of Hindus also attacked
by maddened Muslims.
It appears that the student had a grudge against
Notan Lal over some school matter, and malevolently brought the charge
of “blasphemy.” Even if the government ultimately finds insufficient
evidence to convict Lal, he is still under a threat of death from a
Muslim mob or even one Believer who wants to see Islamic justice done.
Lal may not ever be able to return to his previous home or occupation.
The “blasphemy” case of Asia Bibi became known worldwide. She is the
Pakistani Christian, who was harvesting berries alongside some Muslim
women. They became enraged when Bibi drank water from a communal cup,
thus “contaminating” it for Muslims. A heated argument followed, and the
women then accused her of making disparaging remarks about Islam; she
was promptly taken away by the police. On the basis of nothing more than
those accusations, Bibi was sentenced to death.
Eventually the
Pakistani Supreme Court reversed her conviction. But she still could not
be released, for her own safety, until finally a country was found that
would take her. She was smuggled out of Pakistan to Canada, where no
doubt she still must worry about Muslims recognizing her and carrying
out the sentence they know she so richly deserves.
The tale of one Christian girl in Karachi is heart-wrenching:
Huma is a 14-year-old Christian girl from Zia Colony in
Karachi, Pakistan. On the 10thof October, whilst her parents were out,
she was abducted from her home and forced to convert and marry a Muslim
man. Though her parents received Huma’s conversion papers and marriage
certificate – to a man named Abdul Jabar – the family are sure the
papers are fake, due also to them being dated to the very same day the
young girl went missing.
Recently, Huma’s abductor has threatened both her parents and their
lawyer, Tabassum Yousaf, that he would accuse them of blasphemy. The
High Court of Sindh lawyer has worked on many cases of forced marriage,
and speaking with Aid to the Church in Need, she says that these threats
are common. She explains that the abductors often say, “If you do not
stop searching for your daughter, we will rip pages out of the Koran,
place them on your doorstep, and accuse you of profaning the sacred
book.”
It’s as horrifyingly simple as that: threaten to rip up pages of the
Qur’an, leave them on the doorstep of any Christian parents who try to
locate their kidnapped daughters, and they will then have a permanent
death sentence hanging over them, to be carried out not by the
government, but by maddened Muslims.
