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."
Surreal and Suicidal: Modern Western Histories of Islam
Friday, March 14, 2014
Raymond Ibrahim : The full magnitude of the modern West’s ignorance of its own past
recently struck me while rereading some early history books concerning
the centuries-long jihad on Europe. The historical narrative being
disseminated today simply bears very little resemblance to reality.
Consider some facts for a moment:
A mere decade after the birth of Islam in the 7th century,
the jihad burst out of Arabia. Leaving aside all the thousands of
miles of ancient lands and civilizations that were permanently
conquered, today casually called the “Islamic world”—including Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and parts of India
and China—much of Europe was also, at one time or another, conquered by
the sword of Islam.
Among other nations and territories that were attacked and/or came
under Muslim domination are (to give them their modern names in no
particular order):
Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Sicily, Switzerland,
Austria, Hungary, Greece, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania,
Romania, Albania, Serbia, Armenia, Georgia, Crete, Cyprus, Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Belarus, Malta, Sardinia, Moldova,
Slovakia, and Montenegro.
In 846 Rome was sacked and the Vatican defiled by Muslim Arab
raiders; some 600 years later, in 1453, Christendom’s other great
basilica, Holy Wisdom (or Hagia Sophia) was conquered by Muslim Turks,
permanently.
In short, for roughly one millennium—punctuated by a
Crusader-rebuttal that the modern West is obsessed with demonizing—Islam
daily posed an existential threat to Christian Europe and by extension
Western civilization.
And therein lies the rub: Today, whether as taught in high school or
graduate school, whether as portrayed by Hollywood or the news media,
the predominant historic narrative is that Muslims are the historic
“victims” of “intolerant” Western Christians. That’s exactly what a TV
personality recently told me live on Fox News.
