Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
Malaysiakini : āOur chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.ā - Ralph Waldo Emerson
COMMENT
| The big pow-wow by the Pakatan Harapan presidential council ā I still
have no idea what this council does ā this Friday will hopefully set a
transition date which has dominated Harapan since it took over from the
Najib regime. PAS is going wackadoodle with idiotic
pronouncements, which means that its leadership command is convulsing at
the thought that yet again it has missed out on a chance to make it
into the federal government because it chose the extreme path instead of
the middle ground. The problem with the saboteurs within Harapan is that they operate in
the shadows, never once making the case that there are ābetterā
candidates than the person that the people who voted for Harapan want as
the prime minister.
I, for one, am always willing to listen
to an outlier argument. Anyone who reads my columns understands that I
have chronicled Anwar Ibrahimās missteps even during the run-up to the
historic Harapan win and after, while most partisans were suffering from
a hangover. This is what I find most despicable about these
saboteurs. The fact that they would derail the whole process and they do
it for reasons not based on ideology or principle, but rather because
they want to retain or gain power.
