Revolution Devolution Evolution... Or just Revolution Again

Here goes, I am going to start with I am not big on politics but I am huge on my country, and as I"ve said before I'll say again, this country belongs as much to me as it does to Kalonzo, Raila, Kenyatta, Ruto and Mudavadi (in no particular order).

I may step on a few toes here but we're all Kenyan's if we can take five years and three months of the tenth parliament heck you can take this blog post too. If you're going to reply kindly do it with some grace. If you have a counter argument kindly state it and no, vulgarities do not put more weight behind your point. Another caveat I am not an Uhuru Kenyatta supporter....

Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture. 

And since I was smack dab in the middle of PEV (post election violence for you non Kenyan readers) I shall state that it was no proper revolution, (I may be wrong on this).  Now since I started with the confession that I am not an Uhuru Kenyatta supporter let me make another confession. I am even less of a Raila Odinga supporter. 

I however firmly believe that: 

Condemnation without investigation serves no one except your incompetence to learn.

Here's my condemnation of our prime minister. The man has been in parliament for 15 years and with nothing to show, was minister for roads when not a single inch of new roads was constructed in Kenya, holds the ownership deed for the Kisumu molases plant yet claims to be against corruption. Says nepotism killed our country and appointed his sister an ambassador...(no I do not know any qualifications that got his sister that job.) Now from this alone I wonder how on earth the man has such a fanatical following? I asked a couple of dear friends why they still troop behind him and I still don't get a solid answer apart from: "Kibaki seemed inert..." That's all well and good but Kibaki's weaknesses are not Raila's strengths.

Now I dont know how Raila got soo many people behind him, what he promised them or what they see (if you see anything I dont see I would like to know, if I accuse him falsely kindly let me know I will gracefully retract).

My biggest bone of contention with Raila Odinga, PEV, because unfortunately in my bones I can feel PEV II is just round the corner. Now how come the biggest beneficiary of PEV is not at the ICC? Wasn't the slogan 'No Raila no Peace?' And he somehow convinced us he was a democrat. He managed to convince people he won fairly but wont tell us what political genius gave him a hundred and twenty percent of the vote in Kisumu town (yes 120%). How then did he win fairly? Let's watch out ladies and gentlemen because:

Those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities

And we all saw the atrocities of PEV. Well Odinga was not all alone, it is William Ruto who paraded someone to say that elections were inflated. THe constituencies that were allegedly rigged, Juja, Molo and Nithi. Each of them returned less than 78% total vote count how does that now compare with 120%. He was crying wolf long before the election day and on voting day he said his name was not on the voters register. He trooped back to the KICC to complain to the electoral commission. He read from a prepared speech... How was that speech prepared in the fifteen minutes it took him to drive from Kibera to KICC then issue a press conference and return to Kibera where his name had magically appeared on the register...

If I claim to be fair why I'm I only pointing out Raila's flaws? Because as far as I can see he is well on his way to being president. His co-perpetrator ie the President is not running for office and there's no point flogging dead horses.

The Devolution of The Kenyans

Now work with me Kenyans, because in this country

'if we do not hang together; we shall hang separately'

I recently asked a friend of mine, "Is it entirely coincidence that you're Luo and you like Raila and I am not and I don't like Raila" and she said "I am not entirely sure, mabe we just want to vote in those who are most like us..." Well I must say my friend is a very pleasant girl, she is nothing like Raila in any way stated above. How then did he manage to convince her that she is like him, isn't it our houses that burned for him to get his own entourage and cabinet positions to dish out never mind that they dint give him his mobile toilet and half carpet. Now Kenyans that is is time for elections and yet again we drink of this primordial soup of ethnicity and we emerge less evolved.

We are still devolved and convinced that we're a collection of 42 tribes and not one nation. And now with counties and all we have government boundaries to demarcate tribes. We're just as divided and sensible leaders like Peter Kenneth shall get no vote worth noting... Mine shall be among those ones.

The Revolution of The Kenyans

George Orwel said: "One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship".  And revolutions are famous for evaporating in a blood and euphoria and leaving in the crucible the muck and filth of a new bureaucracy. Now there was a failed coup in 82, former president Moi ensured that there will not be another attempted military coup in the for seeable future.


Yours truly in his auto biography spoke of his role in the 82 coup and in 07 with the help of Ruto and Charity Ngilu tried a civilian coup that earned him half a government. In 02 we had a coup of euphoria. Where we were convinced we had thrown out the Moi regime and all it's ills. Like Fidel Castro says "A revolution is a dictatorship of the oppressed over the oppressors" and with Moi out we thought we had done that... had we really?

And now that we've done devolution and attempted revolutions and discovered that neither work how's about we grow up, how's about we evolve?

The Evolution of The Kenyans

Darwin tried to convince us that evolution was a survival for the fittest race, that stronger species trample weaker species. The story of how the third world works.

But I think that

when an honest man discovers he's been deceived he will either stop to be deceived or stop to be honest

I submit to you that we have been deceived, we have noticed we have been deceived and it's not in our nature to stop being honest.

Evolution is a cooperation not a competition. Species that compete are not sustainable and the most successful species are the ones that cooperate with each other and with their environment. Case in point wildebeests, lions, humans, ants, elephants etc...

I think it's time that we realised none of the fore runners have any of your particular interests at heart, if they do they have done nothing to show it this far, so this time let's walk out of that primordial soup a better people. We have not got any better if we think Musalia Mudavadi will be struck by some form of genius when he becomes president and transform the country, neither shall Uhuru Kenyatta or Raila Odinga or William Ruto or I dare Say Martha Karua... all of them have nothing note worthy from their many years in service. These are men and women who will happily seat in their offices while Kenya burns if it gives them absolute power. People who have grown inefficient in todays society and playing the politics of post colonial Kenya. All I ask if you vote any of them, tame your expectations, we're a resilient people we survived Moi and we'll survive whoever it is who takes over after Kibaki.

A MESSAGE FROM HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

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1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. Kenyan beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

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13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!



PS: Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (NOT humor)!

Why Miss Kalashnikov succeeds where other girls fail

Now ladies, this is me taking time out of my lonely insomnia ridden night to throw a little gem of wisdom out there… Nights like tonight when the dark thoughts start to come to me, I think of something that makes me happy.  A girl, a girl many men have thought about, many have died for, many have died by and even more have lived by, she has saved many lives and taken many more. She has carried many men to power and taken many from it.

She has been friend, mother, wife and daughter and lover all wrapped into one {yeah she a freak like that}. She’s not the prettiest of girls out there and neither is she the best at anything in particular but men in their droves are enchanted by her, in fact she is sixty five this year and still blowing minds, quite literary at that :)

This girl is the child of a man on what was supposed  to be his death bed, Sgt. Mikhail Kalashnikov, meet his little baby girl, Miss. Auvtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947 also known as the AK 47 or Kalashnikov.

 Now before you stop reading this because I made it about a rifle, I submit to you, every guy likes rifles. Show me a guy who does not like guns and I’ll tell you to stop pointing at the queer, it’s not polite. We’re in days where we tolerate people regardless of their sexual orientation. You probably like rifles yourself.

Now a little history here, yes just made it a little more boring. The AK 47 was designed by Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov while he was injured and on sick leave. On his hospital bed he worked on designs for a rifle he entered into a competition to develop the Soviets’ new standard infantry rifle. Now the weapon was designed to be used in extreme conditions, mud, snow, rain and dust and she delivered.

So why does Miss. Auvtomat Kalashnikova beat every other girl? Why in moments of desperation when a man runs from his wife and his mother does he still run to his AK for comfort? {seriously ask Muamar Gaddafi…} A weapon so legendary, it has become the symbol of, revolution and oppression all at the same time, a symbol of freedom and rebellion, what does she know that the rest of the girls don’t? How can she be in Saddam Hussein’s  palace and at the same time the thirteen year old child soldier in Sierra Leone still cradle her? Be in Yoweri Museveni's presidential Limo and the common bank robber rely on her for life and success?

Compared to the other girls in her class, she was not the prom queen; she is a biker chic, a true ride or die girl. 

The AK is a simple five kilo amalgamation of stamped steel and ply wood, just eight moving parts and no parts for aesthetics, elegant, useful and bloody rugged.  Sgt. Kalashnikov said that he designed the AK so that every time you pulled the trigger it was followed by a bang, never a click (followed by a burst not a jam for you ladies who don’t speak guy). A master piece by any measure, a weapon so simple even a child could use it and they do, often. Mozambique put it on their flag, the Russians on a coin and I am thinking some artist should print shirts with it, it’s that symbol of freedom that will rival Che Guevara and dissident college students should pay premium price to have it.

Everything is built; few things are built well

So how does the AK do it? Stay largely reliable? Always delivering? One secret is that the weapon was made with large tolerances. Every girl can do with this… large tolerances, while you were all taught to set high standards and not to lower them for Prince William on a bad day, The AK wins, she’s ride or die, she does not lower standards, she understands sacrifices, she understands that this is just a rough patch, I got a little sand in there but we’ll get it cleaned after. 

The best solutions are felt, not formulated

Now while large tolerances make the weapon less accurate it keeps a man alive when he needs her to deliver. There’s no point in marrying the prom queen if when things get a little rough she will split, catch my drift? We’re not lowering standards we just understand rough patches, we understands circumstances end soon enough.

Don’t go into life with a template for if he does this I will do this, if this happens I will leave and if Justin Timberlake does not sing I will hang myself. No, the best solutions are felt not formulated. Move into every situation with an open mind and solve the situation uniquely not in relation to he said, they said that she’s a slut…

Now another thing, the AK comes with a dust cover, ladies I’ll explain this one to you. When the weapon is set on safe (meaning not able to fire) the same handle covers the internal mechanisms so that dirt and grime does not get in. Now I always wondered why Sgt. Kalashnikov put this in, the AK is the one weapon that could take any amount of garbage why would you then seek to protect it? There’s another nugget right there. Just because you can take a lot of bile and negativity does not mean you should. If the negativity is not in the course if you getting to your targets, it is unnecessary. By all means avoid it.

Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity

The Kalashnikov has only eight moving parts, absolute simplicity, absolute beauty, beauty is not complicated and complications are not beautiful {yes, take down that “it’s complicated” relationship status} The AK has learnt that men do not get subtle hints, they do not get loud hints and definitely do not get obvious hints. Be honest, be simple, be direct, don’t be hostile be simple…. Therein lies her mysterious beauty. If you want in, opt in, if you want out, ask out, if you want to change things, ask to change things and if you want to disagree by all means disagree, don’t be mean, don’t be harsh don’t be complicated, be simple, be direct, be honest be beautiful.... 

Finally

What has kept the Kalash to this day, keep firing, never stop, do not break down because some impurity got into your chamber, keep firing, whatever it is you want, that career, that job, that relationship that trip, do not stop, do not stop aiming…. Keep firing just like the AK spit fierce lead, take down your targets….

Limits are not boundaries, they are targets, we find our limits, we achieve our limits and then… We leave them Behind… the story of the AK. She kept firing, came 1974 and the Americans brought a smaller round to the battle field, the AK changed form the hevier gauge 7.62 round to the smaller 5.54mm round (Exit the AK 47 enter the AK 74). Came the fifties and urban warfare came about and the longer weapon was no longer desirable, when tank commanders wanted a smaller weapon they could use in a tank. Exit the wooden butt stock and enter a folding metal stock.

See how she changes to stay relevant? Keep firing, don’t lower standards just change with the times, don’t compromise who you are just loose the things that weigh your down and stop you from getting to your goals :)

All Out!

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Albert Einstein said:

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead"

Unfortunately when we learn to walk, to talk and play we also learn to fear, but unlike walking, talking and playing we can unlearn fear, makes you smile when you think about it, doesn't it? A Japanese proverb says that, fear is only as deep as the mind will allow. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing in and of itself, but due to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. Did you just feel that? A slight surge of empowerment run through you? Yeah me to! Wanna go out and try something scary? No thanks, I don't.

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do" - Elenor Roosevelt.

"Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not".- Virgil Thomson

When I was a little boy, my greatest fear ever was... (Insert your greatest fear) No I wont fill in mine probably because that would take enough space for an entire blog post, but top on that list was that I had a really annoying lisp that I just dint know how to dispose of to the next unfortunate little boy... Atleaset some one called Richard or something like that, seeing as I had difficulty pronouncing my own name. Strange enough I grew up and one day just out of no where I dint notice it happen but I had no lisp at all now that we are on the topic, who is the cruel soul who invented the word lisp with an S smack in the middle so that sufferers of the said condition cannot even state their condition?!!! What does that story have to do with this blog post? Absolutely nothing!!!! But today I was talking with a good friend of mine and it reminded me of a story about two little boys in their mother's womb. The twins we're having a conversation and it went something like: one of the boys says to the other "I hear when we are born there is so much space you no longer have to be curled up in fetal position" Then the other says "I hear there is no amniotic fluid all round, there is a thing called air, which is a lot like amniotic fluid only you need to keep taking it into your body through your mouth and nose, that is called breathing!" and the other boy says "I am told, there is so much space people walk form one place to the next, walking is this thing people do while all stretched out and upright and they use their feet to move them about, I am also told that people don't live in wombs, they have things called houses which can be thousands of times bigger than a womb!" the other boy says "There other things called plants which are king of like people but cant walk or talk but they breath, then you have to eat through your mouth and no longer through you umbilical cord, in fact, they don't even have umbilical cords!!", "No umbilical cords?!" "I dont think I want to be born, how we supposed to live without umbilical cords?" The two little boys were terrified and din't want to be born since they dint know how to live without their umbilical cords. As nature would have it a couple of months later they two boys were born and the minute they were born screaming in fear of the unknown they started to breath, a couple of hours later their mother fed them and they were able to eat through their mouths not their umbilical cords, months later they started to crawl, then walk, then talk, run then everything else the rest of us do!

All of nature is made to grow. We don't put a seed into the ground and then hope that it grows, we put a seed in the ground, water it, put manure on it and then in and of its self without our assistance it starts to grow, weak and shaky at first then stronger as it grows then becomes a strong tree with fruit and the fruit has many seeds to start the cycle all over again. That's the way of nature, we all grow, it's programmed into us, if your life is getting water and manure, figuratively of course we grow and produce fruit.

In the Bible it says:

Gal 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
NIV

Note, there is a catch to reaping a harvest, if we do not become weary and at the proper time. These are the two most important things in reaching your goals. Not giving up and at patience. An apple tree standing in an orchard in Limuru does not practice producing fruit, it does not struggle or worry, it just sits there, drinks its water and breathes its carbon dioxide and then in due time, it produces its fruit.


We are all wired to do life and to do it well, it's in our DNA. Greatness is inside all of us, it calls out, if there is something you do not have then you do not need it to be great at least not just yet.

--BTW a good friend of mine who is a German Shepherd Dog Breeder is trying to popularize his services and since I believe in supporting my friends, I believe in the quality of his pups and his breeding standards I may as well post a link to his website, that is Blue Line Kennels  http://www.blueline-kennels.com/

We Were Soldiers Once and Young

War is in our nature, it's as human as jealousy, entrepreneurship and prostitution, it's a basic part of fallen humanity, some of the oldest human skeletons found by archeologists have spear heads in their rib cages... yeah, that's how how deeply violence runs through humanity, I mean the first recorded sin after the garden of Eden was murder, violence is almost a basic need, the ability to mete it out and control it. Why else would countries spend billions upon billions of dollars every year to sustain their militaries even though most of these countries have never been in any serious form of war fare.

Every serious politician knows how necessary war is, every diplomat knows that they are just a precursor to armed invasions.

Bullets change governments far surer than votes...

Now I am no authority on war fare, and neither do I fancy myself a writer, apart from my extensive reading of the tactics of Hanibal Barca and the spectrum of war fare from attrition to maneuver; war is fascinating and I love war movies but that's as far as it goes.

All the violence on CNN of late has got me thinking, from Hosni Mubbarak kicked out by a bunch of fed up civilians to Col. Muamar Gaddafi and his: 'I will rule you or kill you' policy and of course the most recent Osama bin Laden, as he stepped out to watch the royal wedding and gave away his position... LOL < I heard that from Tina Masai> Most likely Osama will go down in conventional history as a villain; our own head of state sent congratulatory messages on his death, my friend phoned me at five in the morning to wake up and watch CNN that had the news that Osama was dead, { I would not have felt so wasted if I had seen his corpse} no corpse leaves a lot of questions and too much room for even more conspiracy theories. All in all in the historical records that count Osama is a villain; I am sure in many parts of the world his name is a rallying call to action and his very image inspires fights for freedom, and so it does not matter how history remembers him because

History is often written by those who hang heroes

What matters is how we remember him, now as I was alive to see the August 7th Bombings in Nairobi, for which Mr. Bin Laden was quick to take credit for and the Kikambala bombings in 2002, I am not a fan of Bin Laden and on his alleged death I say "Down with the terrorist!!!" in fact kill a few more just to prove a point, we shall not be scarred by terrorist, that even includes the little boys in next door Somalia who have been issuing threats of late.

Africa is infamous for armed conflict rag tag bands of child soldiers applying guerrilla tactics to destabilize governments who more often than not also got into power by the same guerrilla tactics; All of them perpetrating the worst kind of blood baths on unarmed civilians, this does not however stop them from giving themselves noble names like "The Lords Liberation movement", "Peoples army of here and there", "Patriots front for the republic of bananas", "Freedom fighters from heaven to save the impoverished and so forth"

Often the worst atrocities happen when both combatants declare themselves freedom fighters.

A Muslim preacher I watched on TV a couple of months ago, {I think that's the same guy our government had to spend millions deporting to Jamaica} said something I thought was profound:

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

Now back to Osama bin Laden Son of Mohamed Bin Laden... This was the guy on top of the US terrorists list, a man who's organization is responsible or at least claimed responsibility for some of the worst acts of terror, don't get me started on nine eleven and all the controversy around it... What I believe is anyone who targets civilians is a terrorist and down with the terrorist. George Walker Bush who was commander in chief of the armed force in the United sates when 911 went down thought a lot like me in one of my favorite speeches from him "We'll smoke them out of their holes, we'll send them running..." Amid the countless conspiracy theories, most of which make really good sense he packed up the good men of the US marine corps to far away Afghanistan and Iraq... To fight for the Afghans and Iraqi's freedom. The Iraqi's and Afghans did not seem to take it too kindly and good old George Bush and his men in green uniforms invented the word insurgents to label all the Iraqi "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" as they called themselves... Now don't get me twisted here I am not for the insurgents, in fact throw me a helmet and M16 and I'll be out in the desert wasting insurgents...KABOW take that you bloody insurgent.

Amidst all this my mind goes to the infantry troops with boots on the ground and back packs full of M16 magazines in Helmand and Iraq. Do they ever think about why they are doing what they are doing? what are they doing in a place their country does not remember, in a war it does not understand. This story's a testament to the young Americans who died in the middle east, their British allies, and a tribute to the young men of Afghanistan and Iraq who died by their hand in that place.

Joe Galloway, an American newspaper journalist who recorded the events in the Valley of Death in Vietnam in 1961 on his return to America wrote:

Some had families waiting. For others, their only family would be the men they bled beside. There were no bands, no flags, no Honor Guards to welcome them home. They went to war because their country ordered them to. But in the end, they fought not for their country or their flag, the fought for each other...

Joe Galloway in his closing statement writes:

We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams. So this is our story, for we were soldiers once, and young.

War is by any description hell, the brave men and women out there protecting civilians who will brave hell for safety of their country men and for their liberty and social freedom, those are the true heroes, as a friend of mine once told me

Every man dies, not every man lives

If for the young men who put boots on the ground and stick their necks in a noose every day this helps them find life through taking another life; {it's a paradox of life}.... It brings me to thinking about a different soldier, a soldier friend of mine once told me:

<span style="text-decoration: underline; ">We train to serve not to die, it is noble to die in combat, it's heroic to kill the enemy, I'd rather be a hero than a noble</span>

The other soldier I'm talking about drops his credentials in Joshua 5:14 "And he said, No; for as captain of the army of Jehovah am I now come. Then Joshua fell upon his face to the earth, and worshiped, and said to him, What saith my lord unto his servant?"

This was one soldier who did not come to kill, but came to die, He later says,

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Paul later argues that, for a good man a few would dare to die but for a bad man no one would. And Jesus not only died for his friends, his family, his country men, he also died for those who killed him, for his enemies and for all of us. That's you and I included.



Why wouldn't anyone believe and trust in a soldier like this, one who does not ask you to die for his cause, one who does not ask you to kill for his cause but one who will die for your cause, one who already died for your cause, one who triumphed for your cause... And not because he did not know who he was dying for. A story is told about a man who worked for a railway company in the US, his job was to sit in a booth and change railway tracks by some gear and lever mechanism from a booth, he made sure in coming and out going trains were on the correct rail way and did not suddenly hit an unexpected end of the railway. One day he decided to take his son to work with him. His son was excited to see what his dad does at work and they were having a good time bonding, then the man looked at his watch and noticed it was almost time for a train to come in so he went to his booth to re-set the rail tracks. He got to the booth and set the tracks in place and waited for the train, while the train was really close to the station he noticed his son on the railway with his foot caught in between the tracks, the train was awfully close and he had the choice to either move the railway so his son can run free but that would derail the train and kill many people, it was a tough call and he had to make it fast. he decided to let the train run over his son, he watched as his son screamed with fear and called for his help... it was a quick moment and the little boy's screams could no longer be heard, only the trains engine rumbling to a stop... In the train the man saw prostitutes in the buffet seducing men, gamblers and cons, corrupt business men and thieves, he had sacrificed his son's life to save these people... I don't know what he thought but I'm sure he wondered if his son's life was worth more than the people in the train.

God the father sacrificed his son for a bunch of fallen sinful people but he knew all of this, his love for humanity was that great:

There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is
utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the
worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about
me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself...

And he shall continue to fight for you until he says in Isaiah 2:4

Isa 2:4
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
and men shall study war no more.
NIV