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."
New Tiananmen museum opens in New York ahead of June 4 anniversary
Saturday, June 03, 2023
Malaysiakini : The hope for a "free China" lives on in a new Manhattan museum
dedicated to China's 1989 suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations
around Tiananmen Square, exhibit organisers said on Thursday ahead of
the 34th anniversary of the crackdown.
The June 4th Memorial
Museum in New York will be the only such permanent exhibition in the
world, following the 2021 closure of a similar museum in Hong Kong under
pressure from authorities. Tanks rolled into the Beijing square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to end weeks of student and worker protests.
Decades
after Chinese leaders ordered the military assault, rights activists
say the demonstrators' original goals - including a free press and
freedom of speech - are further away than ever.
Al Jazeera English - In 1989, hundreds of thousands of people flooded onto the streets of Beijing and into Tiananmen Square demanding democracy, freedom of speech and an end to corruption.
After a seven week standoff, the government called in the troops and a bloody battle ensued.
The number of deaths is not known. The Chinese Red Cross initially issued a statement saying that 2,600 people had been killed but rapidly retracted that. The Chinese government claimed that 241 people died, including 23 soldiers.
Twenty years on, Al Jazeera speaks to some of those who took part in the world's largest and most influential pro-democracy movement.
Through their personal stories and the stories of others who witnessed this historic movement, It happened in Tiananmen Square recreates an era when a new generation of Chinese wanted to finally break from the shackles of Mao's Cultural Revolution.
It happened in Tiananmen Square aired from Sunday, May 31, 2009.
