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."
Spiked : As staunch left-wing secularists, the cartoonists and journalists at Charlie Hebdo
will have no truck with notions of immortality, or an afterlife. But 10
years on from the Islamist massacre at their Paris offices – when two
al-Qaeda terrorists gunned down 12 people in cold blood – the spirit of
those slain lives on.
Charlie Hebdo has become a symbol. Of freedom of speech in
the face of Islamist barbarism. Of laughter in the face of terror. Of
courage. As we mark this grim milestone, it is these men and women’s
defiance, not their murder, that we should remember.
When Charb, Cabu, Wolinski, Tignous, Honoré, Bernard Maris, Elsa Cayat, Mustapha Ourrad – some of the editors, cartoonists and columnists of the satirical newspaper – lost their lives on 7 January 2015, they’d already been threatened, their offices had been firebombed, they were under police protection.
Their great crime, supposedly, was to publish cartoons of Muhammad.
First in 2006, following what is rather limply referred to as the ‘Danish cartoon controversy’, and again whenever someone told them they couldn’t. But as we all know, it doesn’t take much to offend a jihadist. Going to a pop concert will do.
Still, they were resolute. They blew raspberries at the
authoritarians, as they always did – whether they were priests,
presidents or far-right-wingers. As editor Charb put it in 2012:
‘I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.’ What an indictment
it is that he, in 21st-century secular France, was forced to make that
choice.
