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."
Gung-ho military posturing invites trouble - By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Friday, December 15, 2017
Malaysiakini : “A soldier is someone’s son or father
or brother,” he said. “The public has a right to know where we are
sending our soldiers and why.” - Brigadier General Mohd Arshad Raji (Retired)
COMMENT | Chickenhawk politicians
are usually extremely gung-ho about military action, especially when
nobody holds them accountable for their words. Kudos to Rais Hussin and P Ramasamyfor
calling out Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on his extremely
cavalier reminder that the Malaysian security apparatus is ready for
action when it comes to the Jerusalem issue.
I wonder what would have happened that if instead of international
mockery, someone took up Malaysia’s preparedness to send troops to Jerusalem? What would have been the response then? Would we have
backtracked and attempted to explain that in Malaysia, establishment
politicians can say anything they want but they cannot be held
accountable for what they say?
On the other hand, maybe what the current Umno grand poohbah said in
his big meet-up in Istanbul with other concerned Muslim potentates that
US investments trumps
any real action to go with that outrage, is a more acceptable solution?
And let us not forget the ever-reliable strategy of dragging the United
Nations to voice out whatever grievances that Muslim potentates claim
on behalf of Palestinians.
In other words, the defence minister’s words were just more empty
talk to burnish Malaysia’s increasingly joked about Islamic
preoccupations on the world stage. No doubt whatever we learnt from
whatever we were doing in Saudi Arabia would have come in handy if we
decided to ship our lads to Israel. Speaking of what we learnt in Saudi Arabia, I am still unclear as to why we were there in the first place.
In 2015, Arab News, under the chest thumping headline, ‘Malaysian troops join Arab coalition’,
claimed that – “Malaysia has become the 12th country to join the
coalition after Senegal which is sending 2,100 troops to fight the
Houthis and the forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The
Ministry of Defence explained that the coalition’s operations centre is
preparing for incorporating the Malaysian and Senegalese forces into
the ranks and determining the nature of tasks assigned to them.”
Now, of course, under questioning by Amanah, amongst others, we are
told by the defence minister that all we were doing there, besides
“learning” that is, was evacuating Malaysians who were in Yemen. Why we
need to “join a coalition” and send troops to evacuate Malaysian
citizens when there are so many other less controversial and effective
means of evacuation is beyond me.
Amanah, of course, loses points because one of their predictable
concerns was that the presence of Malaysians troops there is awkward
“because Western powers such as France and Britain were also present.
These countries, the opposition party said, had anti-Islam policies” –
which is dumb because thousands of Yemeni Muslims are butchered by
another Muslim country. I would assume that a war that butchers thousands of Muslims is an
anti-Islam policy. But this is just me. But then again, I am a simple
man.
A learning expedition Of course, ever since the House of Saud got entangled in the 1MDB
fiasco, Malaysia seems to have become extremely chummy with the kingdom.
Indeed, not only was the visit by the Saudi monarch memorable for
reasons, which is beyond the scope of this piece but which I have
documented elsewhere, we even managed to foil an assassination attempt
allegedly planned by Yemeni operatives. As reported in The Independent, ‘Malaysia foils 'Yemeni attack' on Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’ – “Malaysian police said they foiled an attack on Arab royals by suspected Yemeni militants.
“Seven militants, including four Yemenis, two Malaysians and one
Indonesian, were arrested in separate raids ahead of Saudi King Salman
bin Abdulaziz's visit to Kuala Lumpur... “‘They were planning to attack Arab royalties during their visit to
Kuala Lumpur. We got them in the nick of time,’ national police chief
Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.”
To our former IGP, getting terrorists in the nick of time is not
something you want to be proud about and certainly not something you
publicise. Now of course, if people who are at war with the House of
Saud realised that we were in the kingdom not as allies but merely
“learning” and evacuating citizens, they would be more inclined not to
view citizens of where they were planning their attacks as collateral
damage. And please note, a Malaysian citizen was also part of the kill
team. With this Jerusalem move, Al-Qaeda has called upon all Muslim nations
to destroy Israel and this only makes it more complicated when we have
citizens in this country who support these Islamic extremists for
various reasons.
The United Nations has reported on the human rights violations that
have been carried out by Saudi forces (and their allies) – which they
deny – but of course, Malaysia only response that it was in fact only
there on a learning expedition. Now how do you think this sounds to a
demographic of disenfranchised Muslim Malaysian youths who seem to be
ripe for radicalisation? Already the plight of the Yemeni people has gained traction amongst a
certain crowd of tech-savvy youths all over the Muslim world who blame
the House of Saud for perpetrating crimes on innocent Muslims.
Way back in 2014, Harezt ran an interesting piece
on why the Islamic State was not too interested in attacking Israel –
“The Islamic State’s target bank contains a long list of Arab leaders –
including the Saudi and Jordanian kings, the prime minister of Iraq, the
president of Egypt and even the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood –
before it gets to the Jews and Israel.”
So, while Jerusalem may not exactly be the issue that ignites Islamic
radicalisation in this country, the alleged atrocities committed by the
House of Saud and their allies, which includes Western powers and their
Muslim proxies, may be ripe soft targets for radicalised Muslim youths
who benefit from organisations like Islamic State who have declared
Southeast Asia as their new theatre of war and destruction.
Now, I am not saying that Malaysia has troops fighting in Yemen – I
have no evidence of this – I am just saying that for radicalised Muslim
youths in the region latching on to the plight of the Yemenis, it will
not make a difference.