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."
While acid attacks are commonplace in certain Muslim countries, they
were not normative to western ones. Until immigration reshaped the UK.
Acid attacks in London rose from 162 in 2012 to 454 last
year. There have already been 199 acid attacks this year. Five acid
attacks just happened in London in the space of little more than an
hour.
Newham is the London borough with the highest number of acid attacks.
It also has the second-highest percentage of Muslims in the UK. 398
acid attacks occurred in 5 years in the area named as “the most
ethnically diverse district in England and Wales”. 33% of Newham
consists of non-UK passport holders.
But surely that’s some sort of random coincidence.
Except that the place with the third-highest number of acid attacks
is Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets is a Muslim no-go zone. It has one of
the smallest native British populations in the country. 35% of the
population is Muslim. Most of those are Bangladeshis with a healthy
sprinkling of Somalis.
There were 84 acid attacks in what has been dubbed “The Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets”. Also, entirely by coincidence, Bangladesh has the highest rate of acid attacks in the world.
This may now be the highest-profile current acid attack in the US. And it involves a Pakistani Muslim young woman.
As CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reports, Nafiah Ikram is bravely speaking out after an incomprehensible attack. On March 17, as she arrived home from work, walking from her car, she
saw a man watching from the corner. He ran up to her and threw a cup of
liquid in her face.
“I started to cry and, like, I was panicking. I was like, ‘Dad,
someone threw something in my face!’ And he was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s
acid,’” Nafiah said. Acid burns are seared into her Arlington Avenue driveway, as are burns in her eye and throat.
“She was in the hospital for three weeks, and she’s still not able to
eat properly. She can’t see anything good. Only one eye is working,”
said her father Sheikh Ikram. “I can just see colors, but that’s it,” Nafiah said.
“It’s been a horrible nightmare for us,” said her mother Sherina Mohammed.
The attack is not incomprehensible. It’s horrifying and evil, but
commonplace in Muslim countries.
The media keeps feeding the idea of a
hate crime, but acid attacks are not how Americans commit hate crimes.
This particular methodology, a cup of acidic liquid in the face, is
typical of acid attacks in Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc… and is generally
done to young women by men for reasons that are horribly evil, but not
especially obscure. The media obviously doesn’t want to go there. It’s much easier to
keep suggesting that it’s Islamophobia rather than there might be
something wrong with cultures where acid attacks are commonplace.
