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."
Searching for a villain in a story of victims by Aidila Razak
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Accidents
Malaysiakini : COMMENT | I was a very obedient and
sheltered child, so I am borrowing the story told to me by someone
close to me and who shall remain nameless.
It is set in a middle-class Petaling Jaya residential area in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is a story of a teenage boy and his parents. The youngest and only boy of three siblings, he was a treasured child.
He was ferried to and from extracurricular activities and his
interest in competitive sports was supported to the point where he was
competing at the state level.
Then he became a teenager.
The
boyās school was within walking distance of his home. Every morning, he
would walk to school with a group of teenagers from the neighbourhood. Some
days, the same boys would jump the fence of the school and find
themselves in places teenage boys shouldnāt be, but often are. Places
like dingy arcades and smoky snooker joints.
After that, he would go home, and his parents, returning home from work in the late afternoon, would be none the wiser. On
some nights, at 1am or 2am, while his fatherās snores reverberated
across the otherwise silent home, the boy would sneak out of his bedroom
and walk out the front door.
