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."
Egypt seizes an adopted child from his Christian parents and sends him to an orphanage.
Another tragic story surrounding a Christian household has just surfaced from Egypt.
Four years ago, a Coptic priest heard cries emanating from inside his
empty church. He located its source, only to discover a newborn baby
boy, apparently abandoned by a mother who bore him out of wedlock. The
priest entrusted the newborn babe to a childless, pious, couple from his
congregation. Considering that they had been praying to God for
29-years to give them a child, they joyously embraced the boy as their
own and baptized and named him Shenouda, a popular Coptic name,
including of the current pope’s predecessor.
For the next four years everything went well. The boy—known among
the congregation as “Baby Shenouda”—was the pride and joy of his adopted
parents’ lives. Seeing him as a miracle-child, a “gift from God,” they
spared no care or expense on his upbringing. Despite his young age,
they even managed to teach him the alphabet as well as several biblical
verses that he memorized in connection with every letter.
Then the Egyptian state learned about this otherwise happy
development. Because Egyptian law does not allow for adoption, the
4-year-old child was seized from his loving parents’ arms—to cries of
“mamma, papa!”—and sent to an orphanage.
The police, the ministry of social affairs, and the family-status
court based their decision to seize the child on one thing: because the
religious affiliation of Shenouda’s biological parents is unknown, he
must be considered Muslim. This is based on Islamic teaching, whereby
every human being is born as a sort of prototypical Muslim; they only
“lose” their Islam when taught false things or religions (in this case,
Christianity).
At the orphanage, the child was forcibly “returned” to Islam: he was
issued a birth certificate—marked “Muslim” under religion—and given an
acceptable Muslim name, Yusuf.
Above and beyond these coercive measures, it should be noted that
Egyptian orphanages are notoriously terrible and overly crowded dungeons
where individual children are “swallowed” up into the mass. There,
they are at best neglected, and often have little to look forward to
other than a becoming “street kids” and possibly turning to a life of
crime on release.