Good morning again and thank you. Thank you David for that kind and very brief introduction. It is a great pleasure for me to be here with my wife of 39 years, Deborah, in Louisville which is such a supportive city of our men and women in uniform. And although we will only be here for a couple of hours we certainly feel the spirit and support and I want to just thank you in a thousand different ways for all of that support and your commitment to those who serve now, those who have served and their families.
There are also a great number of familiar faces here. I want to say thank you to my good friend and colleague, Dave Petreaus who you recognized earlier. Truly a terrific, terrific partner. And someone who has made a huge difference in a time of war and will continue to do so.
I would also like to say thank you to congressional representation here. The local representation, the national representation from other parts of the country which is so important. For without your representation our system won’t work and we can’t move forward.
This is also a great opportunity to honor some our young leaders with the Spirit of Service Awards in a few minutes.
The American Legion has long been committed to issues that are nearest and dearest to my heart. The well being of our veterans and their families. And on behalf on of over the 2 million men and women serving in our armed forces I would like to thank you for your service.
As you all know the American Legion dates back to the end of World War I from the 1919 charter. Part of your original mission was, “Assisting the personnel of the Army upon their return to civil life in the necessary economic adjustments.”
What this means to mean, in today’s terms is they sought to fill gaps. From scholarships to emergency relief assistance. Across several generations the American Legion has connected millions of veterans and their families with the care they need.
Your vision for a strong America starts with our youth and our veterans, and I couldn’t agree with it more.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past eight years have created a new generation of veterans, a new generation of leaders. And this morning I’m going to talk about those leaders and the challenges they face: the unique and difficult challenges of irregular and unconventional warfare, challenges which require a special kind of leadership.
I truly believe that anything is possible with good leadership. And the best leaders know that listening and learning are critical to success today as well as in future engagements, and we must develop and retain professionals ready to do just that.
Today, we’ve got the most combat-experienced force probably in our history. They’ve seen a lot, done a lot, bled a lot and accomplished a lot. And we cannot afford to lose their collective wisdom. They are the future of the military, the generals and the sergeants major of tomorrow. And I want to make sure we are doing everything in our power to keep them around, and that means not only looking after them in their career potential, but also the needs of their families who have been so exceptional in supporting their loved ones in uniforms.
Like many of you, I came into the service during the Vietnam era. As the conditions and lessons learned in Vietnam served as the backdrop for the leader I have been throughout my career, today’s young leaders are being shaped by our involvement in the broader Middle East. Despite all that’s been done to bring stability to that region, really since the end of World War I, we are still learning about the various cultures that shape the region’s landscape; because understanding takes time, and without consistent engagement, a willingness to see things from another’s perspective, there will always be a trust deficit. And where trust is lacking, partnerships falter.
During World War I, T.E. Lawrence and a few others committed themselves to learning the customs, the languages and the cultures of the people of the Middle East. They fought beside them, earned their friendship, but most importantly, they won their trust. As much as they hoped and tried to achieve an independent Arab state, shifting economic empires outstripped ideals of obtaining the consent of the governed. In Fromkin’s book, “A Peace to End All Peace,” he discusses the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. I’ve heard it called one of the definitive books of the – about the region.
What really struck me about this book, especially when taken together with Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” is that the ability to view situations through other people’s eyes is essential to good leadership. And good leadership decisions depend upon our knowledge of the kind of fight we’re in.
So how do we gain the level of understanding that today’s warfare demands? Well, for one, you have to be there. You have to see and hear firsthand what the issues are.
You can’t hope to see problems through someone else’s eyes, if you’re not looking into those eyes. As Lawrence himself said, the fight he championed was, quote, “an Arab war waged and led by Arabs, for an Arab aim, in Arabia,” end quote.
In Iraq, Prime Minister Maliki and the political and military leadership are working on solving their own problems; Iraqis solving Iraqi problems – or in Prime Minister Maliki’s own words, building a state on the ruins of dictatorship.
I myself have made it clear, to the Iraqi leaders, we’re leaving. Now is the time to establish the long-term relationships we both need, to be able to continue to help foster a secure Iraq. But the solutions are now largely political and wholly Iraqi.
The Pakistanis likewise are waging their own war against extremists, for Pakistanis, in Pakistan. And in Afghanistan, the war being waged, to defeat al-Qaida and its extremist allies, is led by an international security force, with Afghans, for Afghans, in Afghanistan.
We’ve got to help them. That’s why I ordered the establishment of a Pakistan-Afghanistan coordination cell, inside my own staff, to work exclusively on the issues of that region, to stay engaged.
Believe it or not, it’s easy to lose focus in the Pentagon. And to rotate officers in and out, not only of Afghanistan in general but the specific areas within the country, so that they can become familiar faces and names, so they can build trust.
The unique challenges of irregular warfare are highly complex; a struggle for the people’s confidence. So in today’s fight, as leaders, we must show a sense of urgency. We must engage with resolve. And we must be patient to reap the benefits of our work together.
We must do whatever we can, so that today’s investment produces stability and security and ultimately engenders trust. And I’m talking about more than a military solution.
The military piece is really a small part of the equation. What the people of Afghanistan need is rule of law, not the law of armed conflict. We need to help them get to the point where they have a government that delivers at every level.
I’ve seen a lot of discussion these days about whether this is a war of choice or a war of necessity. I’ve seen public opinion polls saying that a majority of Americans don’t support the effort at all. And I say, good. Let’s have that debate. Let’s have that discussion. Let’s take a good, hard look at this fight we’re in, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.
I’d rather see us as a nation argue about the war, struggling to get it right, than ignore it. Because each time I go to Dover to see the return of someone’s father, brother, mother, or sister, I want to know that collectively we’ve done all we can to make sure that sacrifice isn’t in vain. (Applause.)
Now, I don’t set the policy in this country. No military leader should. I don’t get to decide whether we go to war or we don’t. That’s not my job; the president makes those decisions. My job is to advise him. I tell him what I think. I give him the best military advice I can, and I do that in a completely apolitical fashion.
Now let me tell you what I think. We’re coming up on another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Try to remember how you felt that day. I know I do. I was in the Pentagon, in a meeting not very far from where the plane struck. I lost a good many fellow sailors in our command center that day.
Well, the people behind that deadly day are still at it. They live and plan and train in safe havens along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. And they’d like nothing better than to see either country or both fall prey to the grip of an extremist ideology. To the degree we let them succeed, we let ourselves become vulnerable. My mission, the one currently given to me by the president, is to prevent that from happening. And that’s what we’re going to do.
Will some of that work involve tasks that strengthen governance in Afghanistan? Yes, because the enemy has governing ambitions of their own in Afghanistan. They know that if they can make the Afghan people fear us more than they can trust us, they have a better shot at the preeminence they seek.
They know that if they can provide the basic services that right now in many areas no one is providing, they will win confidence and they will win influence. We can shoot at them all we want, but until we take from them the very popular support they need to breathe, we cannot defeat them. To some, it may look a lot like nation-building. But at its core it’s about giving the Afghan people alternatives, choices that steer them away from the war and violence that has wracked their country for hundreds of years and more towards the representative government, the responsive government, we hope they can live with and believe in in 2009.
The war in Afghanistan is about defeating al-Qaida and its allies, but to do that, we have to defeat the choices those extremists are forcing on the people of Afghanistan. This isn’t just a war against something; it’s a war for something, the trust and confidence of the people who live there, who, if given the chance, will, I believe, choose not to allow themselves or their land to become a safe haven again. It’s about providing for our own national security.
For our part, Secretary Gates and I have promised the president that whether through resourcing or manning, money or people, overcoming this struggle will not be business as usual. We will not allow ourselves to be bogged down by Washington peacetime bureaucracies. We cannot win from the Pentagon, and we cannot win with the efforts of our military alone. We need the best of everyone in the fight, civilian and military.
That’s why Gen. McChrystal is where he is. He is the very best. He knows what it takes to succeed in the counterinsurgency environment. He is integrating with Ambassador Eikenberry’s civilian team to focus on the Afghan people. And as I said, if we don’t get it right for the Afghan people, we get it wrong.
So the most effective tools at our disposal are not necessarily going to be guns and bombs, though we still need them. The best instruments may be shovels, tractors and teaching degrees. To quote my good friend Greg Mortenson, “You have to drink tea.”
Co-author and hero of “Three Cups of Tea,” Greg’s been waging peace by building schools in the tribal regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan for over 15 years – 134 schools, I might add. By caring about and understanding the dynamics of the good people of that region, Greg has practically moved mountains. He told me that in 2000, at the height of the Taliban, there were 800,000 children enrolled in school in Afghanistan – all boys. Now, in 2009, student enrollment is over 8 million children, 2.4 million of which are girls.
He also reminds us that Western fast-food culture is not well suited to that part of the world. Results are measured in decades and generations, rather than minutes and seconds. This important distinction demands a different approach and a different form of leadership in all we do, and it requires patience. It takes time to build relationships, time to learn cultures, time to foster sincerity and mutual respect.
A couple of weeks ago, I visited our Defense Language Institute and met an extraordinary young Army sergeant, who had served as a detainee interrogator in Iraq. Although having been trained in Persian Farsi, this young man discovered that in order to understand what the translators were saying, he had to pick up the Iraqi dialect. So in his spare time he worked with the interpreters to hone his language skill.
Sgt. Ben Randal’s initial deployment was supposed to last 60 days, but he ended up voluntarily extending his tour four times, for 465 days all told. The way he saw it was that once he established a rapport with a detainee, it just wasn’t logical to leave because doing so would have compromised the mission.
Now, certainly I don’t expect our people over there to volunteer to extend their tours. Let me make sure I have that on the record. But the point is that tour duration matters. And the trust that creates legitimate leadership is truly the desired end.
We’ve got to have the right people in the right places for as long as we need them to be there, which means we all have to contribute. We need to apply our very best with the utmost urgency and with the firmest resolve. And we remain committed to this fight and to prevent anyone from ever carrying out terrorist attacks against innocent civilians and American citizens.
So what can the average American, the concerned statesman, community or parent do? You can support our veterans and their families with the same sense of urgency and resolve that I guarantee your military is applying and will continue to apply in today’s fight.
As I alluded to earlier, the relationship between America and her military during the Vietnam era really shaped who I am today. Our young leaders are being shaped by their involvement in these wars. How they lead will depend upon how well we listen to them, on how well we institutionalize the lessons they have to teach us – and I – also, quite frankly, upon the care that they and their families receive back at home. And the American people, above all, are enormously supportive of our men and women in uniform and their families, and you represent that.
We have paid dearly for these lessons, with lives. We need to be conscious of that. The more we equate destruction with legitimacy, the harder it will be to find the answers to the problems we encounter in this century. And the answers are ours to discover, and they involve building trust, retaining families and improving communities.
Your military and your American Legion share the same vision for a strong America: Invest in our people. We must tend to their wounds, the wounds that are visible and the often more long-lasting wounds, those that are invisible, wounds like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, wounds that I call signature wounds of these war – of these wars, wounds that shatter families and cripple our forces. Just as important as preventing the next generation of violent extremists is preventing the next generation of homeless veterans and broken families.
There will be few quick victories. But patiently listening and learning from those around us, making good on our promises as leaders, will bring us all a lasting peace we can trust.
Thank you all again for your service, your dedication. God bless each and every one of you. And God bless our military. And God bless our country.