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."
Since
the Islamic insurgency earnestly began in July 2009—first at the hands
of Boko Haram, a professional Islamic terrorist organization, and later
by the Fulani, Muslim herdsmen also radicalized and motivated by
jihadist ideology—over 60,000 Christians have either been butchered or
abducted during raids, never to return and believed to be dead by their
loved ones. About 20,000 churches and Christian schools have also been
torched and destroyed during the same timeframe.
These are among some of the findings published in an Aug. 4, 2021 report
by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, also
known as “Intersociety,” a human rights nonprofit based in Nigeria.
Although the entire report is worth reading, some notable excerpts
follow:
The total number of ‘direct’ Christian deaths …
from July 2009 to July 2021 … is independently put at no fewer than
43,000…. The killings had emanated from the propagation of radical
Islamism in Nigeria…
…[T]he Islamic Jihadists and their ‘esprit de
jihad’ in the Nigerian security forces have been responsible for at
least [an additional] 18,500 Christian deaths arising from enforced
disappearances, or those abducted and most unlikely to return alive…
While most of the Muslims abducted by Jihadists in Nigeria are later
released unconditionally to their families, most of their Christian
counterparts are killed in captivity or forcefully converted to Islam….
The
atrocities of the Jihadists primarily directed at Christians … include:
massacres, killings, mutilations, slitting of throats and wombs,
beheadings, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape,
girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions,
forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred
worship and learning centers as well as forceful occupation of
farmlands, destruction and forceful harvesting of farm crops and other
internationally prohibited acts…
In the past twelve years … at
least 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools and other learning
centers have been attacked by the Jihadists and destroyed in part or in
whole, or burned or razed down. In the past seven months of 2021, for
instance, the number of churches threatened or attacked and destroyed or
burned down has risen to over 300….
In the same past twelve
years, it was also independently found that no fewer than 30 million
Christians especially in Northern Nigeria [which is Muslim-majority] and
their ethno-religion were threatened and ten million of them have been
uprooted, six million forced to flee their homes or geopolitical
locations to avoid being hacked to death and over four million displaced
and became IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons]….Although
the last month to be included in Intersociety’s reporting period was
July 2021, the massacres and atrocities have relentlessly continued
since. A few examples from just August, 2021, follow:
