General John M. Keane, former Army Vice-Chief of Staff, retired recently. On October 2, he gave a farewell speech in a ceremony at Fort Myer, Virginia. The whole address is worth reading, but these excerpts were notable.
We ask much of our Soldiers and they make many sacrifices each and every day. Our Soldiers do not want to die. But they are willing to and I have been in awe of that remarkable fact for every 1 of my 37 years in the military. They are willing to give up everything they care about in life. Everything: The opportunity to live a full life; the opportunity to be a parent and raise a family; the opportunity to have friends; the opportunity to love and to be loved.Posted by Alan at October 10, 2003 12:14 PMThey are willing to give up all of this, for what? They do it for one another and they do it for the simple sake of the duty. This is true honor. You cannot buy this type of devotion and we can never, ever take it for granted. And we never will.
This morning my family and I laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier a place I believe is the most sacred piece of ground in America. I paid my respect for the last time in uniform to all those wonderful, precious Soldiers and civilians who we buried every single year that I have had the honor to serve. For me, it was always about them and their sacrifice will be with me forever.
We have a magnificent Army. Rebuilt after the Vietnam War, this Army helped to end the Cold War and, during the last 14 years, has deployed around the world to stop thugs from imposing their will on their people or on others.
America and its armed forces stand for what is right and good, and we are willing to take enormous risks to achieve it. Preventing people from being killed, freeing them from repression and horror, and permitting them to have a normal quality of life experience is something I have been so proud to be a part of.
Today, we are a nation at war a nation forever changed by the attack of 9/11. For the first time in my career and the first time since WWII we have deployed our forces directly on behalf of the American people and our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines get it. They understand the war on terrorism is all about protecting the American people. As such, I have never seen such intensity and dogged determination to succeed.
Our troops have performed magnificently in two stunning victories in two years two vastly different operations that demonstrate our armed forces remarkable capability. But we have more to do.
I want to tell you something about this war against terror we are fighting in Iraq and around the world. The foreign terrorists, the Baath Party sympathizers, the Islamic extremists who wantonly kill Americans and innocent people from many nations, have no idea what they are up against.
Their strategic objective is the political and moral will of the American people. They want to destroy our confidence. They think they know us because they have heard of Lebanon in 83, or Somalia in 94, or the USS Cole in 2000. They think we are morally weak and we will lose our resolve. But their knowledge is superficial and their understanding is shallow.
To understand America and Americans, they need to understand the Marne in 1918, or Tarawa in 43, Omaha Beach in 44 or the Chosin Reservoir in 1950. They need to understand that a nation that produces Alvin York and Audie Murphy; John Pershing and George Marshall; Chesty Puller and George Patton; Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon; produces heroes in every generation. They are out there now performing every day.
Our enemies are cunning, but they are ignorant and their ignorance will be their undoing. They do not know our will, our courage, or our character.
When we say we are going to win this Global War on Terrorism we mean exactly that. We dont mean a moral victory, or victory in some abstract sense. The reality of more than 3,000 dead in New York, Pennsylvania, and in the Pentagon does not allow for such nuances.
When we say we are going to win this Global War on Terrorism, we mean we are going to destroy those who would destroy us wherever they are in this world. We mean we are going to go wherever we have to and stay as long as we need to.
This fight will test our perseverance, our stamina, and our resolve, but I assure you, we will not be found wanting. We intend to protect America and our way of life. The people of this nation are counting on us we will not let them down.
via the U.S. Army
Tip (but no link) via the Washington Times