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."
Commemorating ‘Sayfo’: The untold genocide of the Aramean Christians By OHAD MERLIN
Saturday, June 22, 2024
I am Aramean' T shirt with Aramean Eagle and Flame Symbol
JPost : “In my view, we must cultivate and strengthen our community’s sense of collective identity not to seclude ourselves, but to fit in and take part in our societies,” says Khalloul, Aramean activist.
The Jerusalem Post
reached out to Shadi Khalloul, an Aramean activist and educator from
the northern community of Gush Halav (Jish), to hear more about the
tragic affair and the community today.
“Our memorial day is very similar to Holocaust Memorial Day,” explained Khalloul. “We hold commemorative ceremonies and learn about the history of our people and the hardships they faced.
“The
meaning of the word Sayfo is ‘sword,’” he continued. “On this occasion,
we remember the hundreds of thousands of Arameans who were murdered by the Ottomans
and all kinds of criminals who were released from prisons and carried
out the ethnic cleansing in our villages, pillaged them and took away
our land and properties.”
The
Sayfo is less known than its Armenian counterpart, despite the fact
that it took place in the same period of time, by the same perpetrators,
and for the same reasons.
Remnants of Biram (credit: Avital Perelshtein)
“Though
a more ‘silent’ ethnic cleansing of our people by the Ottomans began as
early as 1895, when World War I broke out, the Ottomans accelerated
their actions in their effort to purge the areas under their control of
any trace of millions of the indigenous Christian populations,” added
Khalloul.
“This
includes Armenians, Pontic Greek, and even the Maronites of Lebanon,
who faced systemic starvation in the disaster known in Aramaic as
‘Kafno’, or 'the hunger.'"
Who exactly are the Arameans?
“The Arameans
are a Semitic people who attribute their past to Aram, the son of Shem
who was son of Noah. We are also related to the patriarchs and
matriarchs of the Jewish nation, as Abraham, Rivka, Leah, Rachel – all
of them are mentioned in the Bible as Aramean.
“Originally,
we lived in what is now Southeast Turkey and the Northern part of the
Levant. There were several historical Aramean kingdoms, including Aram
Zoba, Aram Naharayim, and others, including Tadmor, which is now known
as Palmyra in Syria, most of them following a polytheistic religion.
“Our
forefathers accepted Christianity very early on, as Jesus himself spoke
Aramaic, just like them. According to tradition, St. Peter himself, who
was from Galilee, founded the first church in Antioch, and to this day,
the patriarch in Lebanon is called Butrus after him.
Over
time, we split into different denominations, and today, there are
several ones with varying names, including Maronites, Syriac, Assyrian,
Chaldeans, and others. Some of us use Aramaic as a liturgical language,
and others even as their daily spoken language. So yes, we have our own
customs, a flag, and even a sense of collective memory as persecuted
people who went through hardships and massacres.”
