Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen 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 soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt 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."
Wiped Out: Islam's Erasure of Christianity Across the Middle East
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
RAIR : In just over a century, the Near and Middle East have undergone a
dramatic transformation, and not quietly.
At the start of the 20th
century, 1 in 4 inhabitants of the region was Christian. Today, only 11
million Christians remain among 320 million Muslimsāa striking reminder
of the deep-rooted Christian histories in these lands, from Syria to
Iraq to Egypt, which stretches back thousands of years. But today, the
situation is drastically different. Christianity has been reduced to a
mere fraction of the population, now just 1 in 30.
This isnāt just a matter of population shifts. Itās a testament to
the brutal expansion of Islamic dominance and the systematic destruction
of religious diversity in lands once shared by multiple faiths. From
the mass exodus of Christians from Iraq following ISISās rise to power
to the brutal crackdown on Coptic Christians in Egypt, the examples are
endless. In 2014, entire Christian villages in Iraq were wiped out, and
in Egypt, Copts have been repeatedly targeted with church bombings,
kidnappings, and murdersāall with little to no protection from the state.
The rise of Islamic terror, combined with state-sanctioned oppression,
has squeezed the Christian population into the margins, driving millions
to either leave or face persecution, violence, or death. Once-vibrant
Christian communities in cities like Aleppo, Baghdad, and Cairo are now
shadows of their former selves, reduced to ruins, with churches bombed,
homes confiscated, and families forced into exile.
The rapid expansion of Islam has been marked not only by demographic
takeover but by the terror it instills in those unwilling to conform.
Sharia-inspired laws across the region have institutionalized the
persecution of Christians. In places like Iran and Saudi Arabia,
conversion from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death, while in
countries like Pakistan, blasphemy laws are used as a tool to target
religious minorities, often leading to mob violence and executions.
Christianity, which had flourished in the region for millennia, is being
erasedādeliberately, methodically, and violently. This isnāt peaceful
coexistence; itās the result of forced submission, systemic oppression,
and an ideology that, when in power, leaves no room for anything other
than Islamic dominance.
The decline of the Christian population in the Near and Middle East
isnāt just a statisticāitās a harrowing signal of what happens when
Islam takes root and exerts its full strength. Itās the culmination of
centuries of conflict, from the Armenian Genocide, where Christian
minorities were systematically killed by the Ottoman Empire, to the
ethnic cleansing campaigns in places like Syria, where even today,
Christians are hunted by Islamic terrorist groups. History proves that where Islam expands, other religions face two grim choices: submission or death.
