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."
Deborah: Soyinka wants National Mosque Imam sacked over blasphemy comment
Monday, May 23, 2022
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called for the sacking of Professor Ibrahim Maqari, the Imam, National Mosque, Abuja, over his comment on the killing of Deborah Samuel.
Soyinka condemned the Imam for making comments capable of instigating his followers to take laws into their own hands.
The deceased, a 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, was gruesomely murdered by a mob following accusation of blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.
Reacting to the dastardly act, Imam Maqari claimed that there
are some red lines in Islam which must not be crossed, adding that if
issues of blasphemy against the prophet are not addressed by the
authority, the Muslims would do so themselves. Soyinka has now accused the Islamic cleric of instigating his
followers to take laws into their hands in the name of religion.
The Nobel Laureate made the accusation during the one-year remembrance of the late former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, and the launch of Attahiru’s biography written by author, Niran Adedokun held in Abuja on Saturday, May 21, 2022, reported The Punch. He condemned extrajudicial killings in the name of religion,
adding that the “apostate of the creed of humanity, Professor Maqari,
must be removed from office.”
The Prof added that, “It is no longer sufficient for all to
declaim that Islam is this and that, that the Sharia is thus and thus,
that Prophet Mohammed set this or that example and made this or that
humanistic pronouncement.“We have gone beyond theocratic rhetoric that merely pays
lip service to civilised norms. Let all pietistic denunciations be
backed by affirmative action.”
Soyinka insisted that Imam Maqari's comment served as further
encouragement for his followers to kill anyone that commits blasphemy
against the Prophet.
