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."
Some Arab leaders have taken risks for peace — and paid with their lives by Clifford D. May
Friday, March 29, 2013
Meeting
with King Abdullah II in Jordan last Friday, President Obama was
gracious enough to mention the monarch’s great-grandfather, King
Abdullah I, who “gave his life in the name of peace.” To Western ears,
that sounded like a tribute. To Arab and Muslim ears, it may have
sounded like a warning. To understand why, it’s necessary to dip into the history that
Westerners seldom learn and Middle Easterners seldom forget. What we now
call Jordan was for centuries a backwater of the Ottoman Empire, the
last of the great Islamic caliphates. Ottoman forces made the mistake of
fighting on the losing side in World War I. Defeat precipitated the
collapse of the empire and the dissolution of the caliphate. Ottoman
lands were divided between the British and the French. The territory
east of the Jordan River, referred to as Transjordan, became part of the
British Mandate of Palestine.
Farther east, in Arabia, fierce warriors of the Saudi clan overthrew the
Hashemite clan, whose members are said to be descended from the prophet
Mohammed and who had long ruled the Hejaz, which includes the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina. Displaced Hashemites were installed by the
British in Transjordan. Abdullah — who had fought against the Ottomans
and alongside T. E. Lawrence — was named Emir of Transjordan in 1921.
A quarter century later, when the Palestinian Mandate was dissolved, a
fully independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan was founded, with
Abdullah on the throne. He opposed the establishment of Israel, and his
Arab Legion was among the five armies that attempted to crush the
fledgling Jewish state in 1948. That effort failed, of course, but the
king’s men did cross the Jordan River and seize Judea and Samaria
(subsequently renamed the West Bank), including sections of Jerusalem.
Interesting to note: At that time, no Arab leader proposed establishing
an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and east Jerusalem,
nor in Gaza, then under Egyptian control.
In April of 1949, Abdullah changed his country’s name to what it is
today: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Officially, it remained at war
with Israel. Unofficially, Abdullah recognized that a long and bloody
conflict with his western neighbor would benefit no one. In 1951, as he
was leaving the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, he was assassinated by
Mustafa Ashu, a member of the Jihad al-Muqaddas, the Army of the Holy
War. Winston Churchill said: “I deeply regret the murder of this wise
and faithful Arab ruler, who never deserted the cause of Britain and
held out the hand of reconciliation to Israel.”
You see my point? Imagine you are Mahmoud Abbas, president of the
Palestinian Authority. You know that making peace with Israel will bring
you the praise of British prime ministers and American presidents.
Perhaps you understand that peace would be in the best interest of your
people. But you also are keenly aware that serious peacemaking will
place you and members of your family in severe peril.
Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979. Two
years later, he was assassinated in accord with a fatwa written by Omar
Abdel Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh,” who would go on to be convicted by
federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy for his role in the 1993 bombing
of the World Trade Center. Since becoming president of Egypt, Mohamed
Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been calling for the
Blind Sheikh’s release. And the assassination of Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel in
September 1982 was not unrelated to the fact that just two weeks earlier
he had agreed to start the process of establishing diplomatic relations
with Israel.
I’m not persuaded that Abbas is a peacemaker at heart. But even if
I’m wrong about that, I’m right about this: Abbas knows that Hamas,
Hezbollah, and Iranian terrorists are watching him. Israelis know that,
too, which is why they cannot make concessions to Abbas that would leave
them weaker vis-à-vis other sworn enemies.
The day before his visit to Jordan, President Obama addressed an
audience of about 1,000 Israeli students in Jerusalem. “Political
leaders,” he told them, “will not take risks if the people do not demand
that they do.” On his next visit to the Middle East, perhaps the
president will visit Birzeit University in the West Bank and make a
similar statement. I don’t doubt that some in the audience will want to
applaud, but I do wonder how many will have the courage to put their
hands together. National Review — Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security.
