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."
Christians are Under Attack as Nigerian Jihad Escalates by Max J. Prowant
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
National Interest : On June 5, Pentecost Sunday, armed men entered Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria, and opened fire
on the congregation.
As the congregants fled, more gunmen waited
outside to pick them off. The final death count has not yet been
released, but reports say at least forty laypersons were killed in the
carnage, including children. Witnesses suggest as many as eighty were
killed.
Nigerian Christians are no strangers to this sort of violence. Boko
Haram and the Islamic State-West African Province (ISWAP) have made a
sport of assassinating Christian leaders and burning churches in the
country’s northeast. There is no doubt that both seek to annihilate the
country’s Christian population altogether. In the midlands, Muslim Fulani
herdsmen have become notorious for murdering Christian villagers.
Earlier this year, they executed one of their own for converting to
Christianity. Since just 2015, upwards of
11,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria. There is little
question that the crimes fully meet the criteria of genocide as
determined by Article II of the United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
This begs the question: if the church attack in Owo is only the most
recent in a string of attacks on Christians, why is it important? Quite
simply, it demonstrates the ever-growing plight of Nigerian Christians
and the increasing intensity of jihadist fervor.
The site of this latest attack was in Ondo province, an otherwise
peaceful province in the Southwest of the country, well within Christian
territory. Most attacks against Christians to date have been confined
to the Northeast—where the ISWAP insurgency rages—and in the midlands,
where Fulani fanatics roam free. To venture as far South as Owo suggests
a newfound boldness and capability on the part of the attackers.
