The Way Of The Cross
(I will be Thy valiant soldier.)

I. Jesus is condemned to death.
Thy will, O God, is supreme.
May my one great purpose be to seek it and to follow it.

II. Jesus receives the Cross.
Grant, O divine Saviour,
that I may faithfully fulfill every duty for love of Thee.

III. Jesus falls for the first time under the Cross.
How many times, O Lord,
have I been faithless through sin, to Thee.

IV. Jesus is met by His Blessed Mother.
Mary, my Mother, intercede for me with thy Divine Son.

V. The Cross is laid upon Simon of Cyrene.
Every time I put temptation aside and resist sin
I help Thee, Jesus, to carry Thy Cross.

VI. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.
Thy suffering was for me.
I will not desert Thee, but always defend Thee.

VII. Jesus falls for the second time.
Forgive me, O merciful Lord, my many, my repeated sins.

VIII. Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem.
Thy words of mercy and pardon
gives me fresh hope and confidence.

IX. Jesus falls for the third time.
My sins never discourage me, but lead me to seek
more and more Thy help.

X. Jesus is strip of His garments.
I will be Thy valiant soldier.
My conduct will never shame Thee before men.

XI. Jesus is nailed to the Cross.
Thy commands mean that I should conquer
every unholy desire.
I will conquer in Thy name.

XII. Jesus dies on the Cross.
When my hour comes, may I die bravely,
dear Jesus for Thee.

XIII. Jesus is taken down from the Cross.
In camp, on the march, in battle,
Thou, O Lord, will be my true, though unseen, Comrade.

XIV. Jesus is laid at the sepulchre.
Thee, my eternal Captain, will I always serve.
With Thee I live and with Thee I die.

Mordred The Traitor

Then spoke the King:
"My house has been my doom.
But call not you this traitor of my house
who has but lived beneath one roof with me.
My house are rather those who swore my vows,
yes, even while they broke them, owned me King.

And well for thee, saying in my dark hour,
when all the purport of my throne has failed,
that quick or dead you holdest me for King.
King am I, what so ever be their cry,
and one last act of Kinghood you shall see
yet, ere I pass."

And uttering this
the King made at the man, then Modred,
smote his liege hard on that helm
which many a heathen sword had beaten thin,
while Arthur with one blow,
striking the last stroke with Excalibur,
slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.

-Lord Tennyson

From The South

From the south they come,
the birds,
the warlike birds,
with sounding wings.

I wish to change myself
to the body of that swift bird.

I throw my body into the strife.

34 Solutions For 34 Provinces

There seems to be a consensus building
about how to handle Afghanistan.
Number one we have to whip Hamid Karzai daily
to get a handle on his totally inept and corrupt government.

And two,
we need 34 individual solutions
for each of the 34 Afghani provinces.

I hear that the Korengal valley speaks their own language
with their own customs, and ways,
on handling truly local affairs.
A place like that can't handle a central government.
They need local autonomy or you're just gonna piss-off
the Hatfields and the McCoys.
I think that's a obvious gimme.
Take the fucking gimme.

We have to arm, pay-off and work with those cats
instead of working against them.
We should, at all possible, not to aggravate the locals.
especially in a place like the Korengal valley.

We need 34 politikal solutions with
34 politikal Commanders who understand the locals,
their politiks and what makes them tick.
Arm the fuckers I say.
(Say what?)
Yeah that's what I meant.
Arm the fuckers with our shit.
Everybody loves a new rifle, especially with rounds
we can keep a count on and are hard to find.

We also need a politikal hit squad to wack the
enemy leadership, who just can't be reconciled with.

I think we got a good team,
but we're truly running out of politikal time.
You have to push that COIN forward.
This Counter-Terrorism bullshit strategy reminds me of
"Search and Destroy" a truly failed policy from out
of those Vietnam era cats.
Those dodos could fuck up a wet dream.
They ain't studied or thought through
any of the lessons of Iraq,
They're still living in the 60's.
Hey man, that was over 40 years ago, get with the times.

I believe in keeping the politikal centers strong
and the idea of holding sway over
the top ten populated areas is a good one,
but it just ain't good enough.
We really need 34 solutions,
for each of those 34 provinces.
And if there is 54 tribes?
Then we'll need 54 politikal solutions
with 54 politikal commanders
who can write reports and make command decisions
from community housing to divorce court,
and who can get the job done.

It's common practice to pay off the locals in southeast Asia
and I'm all for it.
But if they fuck up?
I want the fucker 6 feet under pushing up daisies.
(When I think Afghanistan?
I think Mafioso.)

If I was running this show?
I would have a full politikal landscape report,
from top to bottum, on my fucking desk like yesterday.
I just wouldn't be able to think clearly without one.
I hope you fuckers got a map already laid out.

And where of where is my Task Force Odin?
And what happen to all that fucking money
we dish out to Jieddo?
I want results man. Not fantasy bullshit.
Simple, get the job done, results.
We ain't got the time left for you fuckers
to get your shit together.
I'd be horse whipping you everyday.
That's right. Horse whipping!
You'd all be bleeding fuckers from the whip,
like you deserve to be!

Damn fellas get a move on...
You are running out of time.

The Afghanis can run the show.
We just need the right politikal push
without starting or getting involved
in another Afghani civil war.

A Prayer To Mars

When dawn arrived Scipio emerged from his headquarters
in ritual decorum to pray before the advance guard.

"To You, I pray and ask that whatsoever has been done
under my auspices and my command,
is now being done or shall be done,
may prove beneficial for me, for the people of Rome
and their children, and for our allies and the Latins.
Who joined with the Roman army under my auspices
in waging war on land and sea.

May Your good counsel and assistance be with me
and may You bless all our endeavors with rich increase.
May You guard the welfare and sustenance of our soldiers,
allow the victors to return home healthy and safe,
and laden with the spoils of victory.
May they bring back honors and plunder to share
in my triumphal procession after defeating our enemy.

Grant to me and to the Roman people
the power of vengeance and the opportunity and means
to inflict on our enemies the same as
the Carthaginians have striven to inflict
against the people of Rome
and thereby an example shall be set forth to others.

- Scipio Africanus

Lucan De Bello Civili: Pharsalia 2.47-49

The Oath of Seven Warriors

There were seven warriors,
who were fierce regimental commanders,
that slaughtered a bull over a black shield
touching the bull's gore with their hands
they swore an oath to Ares:

"O Ares, you are exceeding in strength,
harnessed in bronze, brave in heart
and the Saviour of cities.
O defender of Olympus, your arm is strong,
unwearying and mighty with the spear,
you are the father of victory.

Hear me now, O helper of men!
You are the stern governor of the rebellious
and the leader of righteous men,
who whirls a fiery sphere among the planets
above the third firmament of heaven.

Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life,
that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice
and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul.
Restrain also this keen fury from within my heart
which provokes me to tread in the ways
of blood-curdling strife.

Rather, O blessed one,
give you me the boldness and strength
to abide within the harmless laws of peace,
avoiding all strife, hatred and the violent fiends of death."

- Homeric Hymn 8 to Ares

The End and Beginning Are Both Dreams

So spoke Arjuna to the Lord of Hearts, sighing,
"I will not fight!"
and he held silent then.

Krishna whom, with tender smile, "O Bharata!"
while the Prince wept despairing between those Armies.
made his answer in divinest verse:

"You grieve where no grief should be!
You speak words lacking wisdom!
For the wise in heart mourn not for those who live,
and not for those who die.
Not I, or you, or any one of these ever was not,
or ever will not be.
Forever and forever afterwards all that do, lives always!

In a man's life comes infancy, youth and old age,
so come there raisings up and layings down.
Which the wise know and fear not.
This that irks your sense of life,
thrilling to the elements bringing you heat and cold,
sorrows and joys. 'Tis brief and mutable!
So bear with it Prince, as the wise bear with it.

The soul is not moved,
The soul that with a strong and constant calm
takes sorrow and takes joy indifferently,
and lives in the life undying!
That which is, can never cease to be,
that which is not, will not exist.
To see this truth of both is theirs who part
essence from accident,
substance from shadow.
Indestructible, you should learn!

This Life is spreading life through all.
It cannot anywhere, by any means,
be anywise diminished, stayed, or changed.
But for these fleeting frames which it informs,
the spirit is deathless, endless, and infinite.
If they perish? Let them perish.

Prince! Fight!
He who says: "Look! I have slain a man!"
He who thinks: "Look! I am slain!"
Those people know nothing!
Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!

Birthless, deathless and changeless remain
because the spirit is forever.
Death has not touched the spirit at all.
Never was the spirit born,
and the shall the spirit never cease to be,
Never was a time when the spirit was not.
The End and Beginning are both dreams!"