Supreme Leader’s Speech to Army Commanders

Supreme Leader’s Speech to Army Commanders
22/04/2012

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on April 22, 2012 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with Ground Force commanders of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Today has been an enjoyable and pleasant day for me: being in the company of you dear brothers and youth from the Armed Forces, speaking to you in person and benefiting from the manifestations of your motivation and dynamism and from your pure and enlightened hearts. I extend my congratulations to you on the occasion of Army Day. I hope that each and every one of you - who are mostly young and are going through the good part of your life - will protect the future, dignity, glory and power of our nation in a perfect way. I hope Allah the Exalted makes this happen.

Thankfully the Ground Forces of the Army have been thriving. One can feel this. This movement and this auspicious trend started from the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. It is wrong to think that during the time of the taghuti regime, there were no pious people in the Army or that there were few such people. No, this was not the case. I was in contact with a number of people from the Army at that time. I was friends with some of them and I used to engage in revolutionary activities with certain others. Even at that time there was no shortage of pious, enthusiastic and honest people in the Army. I had seen them on different occasions and in different places. I had certain other friends who shared certain sympathies. However, individual orientations and organizational orientations have different meanings. When the orientation of a society or organization is wrong, individual efforts will not be effective in that society, no matter how strenuous they are. This was the case at that time too.

There is a narration - which I think is from Imam Sadiq (a.s.) - and it contains a qudsi narration: "I will punish any group of Muslims who follow an oppressive ruler who has not been sanctioned by God even if they are pious and do good deeds." This is what the narration means: if a society is ruled by corrupt and oppressive individuals, pious deeds of the members of that society will not get them anywhere and if some people surrender to those oppressive individuals and follow them, God will punish them. The opposite situation has also been mentioned in the same narration: "And I will forgive any group of Muslims who follow a ruler who guides them under God's order even if they are oppressive and commit sins."

Of course, the narration needs explanation and one should not limit oneself to the apparent meaning, but it essentially means: if in a system, a community, a country or a society, the system of government is divine and just, those who follow the government will be forgiven by God even if they make certain mistakes. This can be applied to a country, Ummah or society. Similarly it can be applied to an organization such as the Army.

At that time the Army was in the wrong hands. But when the popular movement started, the pious members - and the few high-ranking commanders who were pious - found their path. Since the early days after the victory of the Revolution, certain people stepped in and helped the revolutionary elements to find a way to speak to the Army. After all, they were not familiar with each other. Neither our officials, nor the revolutionaries, nor the activists, nor the clergy, nor our academia were familiar with the Army. They did not know each other's language. This common language was created thanks to the Revolution.

Today the Army is one of the most populist organizations in the country. Among the different organizations that make up the government, we see that the Army is one of the organizations that has come closest to the people and their tendencies and feelings and that it has contributed most to the popular movement in our society. This is a very valuable and precious thing. It is a fact that throughout the world, armies are established and deployed with the slogan of safeguarding national interests, but is this really the case? Did the US Army safeguard the interests of the American people in Iraq and Afghanistan? Did the people of America benefit from the occupation of Afghanistan? Were they happy about killing the people of Afghanistan? Were the interests of America served by the mercenary soldiers who shot the people, dismembered their bodies and took pictures with the body parts? If somebody asks the leaders of the US regime why they need the big army and the advanced military equipment, their answer would be: we need them to protect our national interests. Are they telling the truth? This is the case with almost every part of the world. Of course, I am not claiming that this is definitely the case everywhere because I do not have all the necessary information. The situation might be different in a particular corner of the world. But based on what we have seen and learnt, this is often the case throughout the world: armies are established in the name of national interests, but they are not at the service of national interests, rather they are at the service of political ambitions. This has been the case throughout the history of mankind. A man deploys more than a million soldiers to go and occupy Greece, but he is defeated and is forced to return to the country. This was an achievement of our taghuti past, during the time of Xerxes. These things were not done for the sake of national interests. As far as I know and on the basis of what has been recorded in history books and what is available to us, this has often been the case with armies throughout history: they have either been at the service of personal ambitions or at the service of safeguarding taghuti powers.

During the early years after the victory of the Revolution, part of the Army had been stationed in a royal palace in order to protect it. A notice had been put up at the palace which said something along the lines of "basically the Army has been established to protect this government" which is very different from protecting national interests. If we find an army in the world whose beliefs and feelings are the same as those of the people, an army which is truly at the service of the people and national interests rather than at the service of certain individuals, that army is a very valuable army. And you are such an army. I really do not know of another example. As for the countries that have recently carried out a revolution, we should wait and see what happens, but currently I do not know of any such army, an army that is not at the service of personal ambitions, an army that would not fight to death for the sake of a particular person. I would like to stress that neither God nor Islamic principles would allow us to order our Army, our Armed Forces or our men to fight to death for the sake of a particular person. Yes, everybody may fight to death for the sake of Islam. For the sake of raising the flag of our independence as an Islamic country, everybody must be ready to fight to death and this death is called martyrdom. Then our Army would be a divine and spiritual army. It would be an Islamic army, an example of the "immaculate tree" that I have discussed previously. This has been the goal since the beginning of the Revolution. And I would tell you that fortunately we have been moving closer to this goal.

I have been witness to the growth of the Army over the past thirty years. I was present when we first celebrated the 29th of Farvardin. In the year 1358, when our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) had been hospitalized, a temporary platform was built in front of the hospital and a few units of the Army paraded past the platform and Imam Khomeini (r.a.) announced the day as Army Day. I am familiar with the conditions of the Army. Among the people who are present in this meeting - those who have been in the Army in the past thirty years - maybe there is not even one person whose graduation ceremony was held in my absence. I think I was present in the graduation ceremonies of each and every one of you, those of you who graduated from our military academies and were awarded epaulets. I see that today our Army is more advanced than 20, 15 years ago. It is much more advanced compared to the beginning of the Revolution. We have made good progress and it is necessary to maintain it. This progress will bring about happiness in this world and in the hereafter.

Today a movement has started in the world and everybody has realized that the movement is opposed to the system of hegemony. We do not have a problem with individuals, no matter in which part of the world they live. The issue is the system of hegemony. What is the system of hegemony? It is the mechanism in the world according to which countries and nations are categorized into two groups: the domineering and the dominated. Some of the evil hegemons are denying this and they do not announce it. But there are some others who announce this because of their stupidity. One example is the previous US President who openly announced that in the case of Afghanistan, the Twin Towers and other such issues, those who are not with America are against it. Well, this is stupidity. The hegemons of the world build their relations with the world on the basis of domination.

The problem that the powerful hegemons of the world are faced with is that there is a movement in the world that is opposed to this mechanism and Islamic Iran is at the epicenter of this movement. You are at the epicenter of this movement. Islamic Iran has been very patient in this regard. The day when we started the movement, we did not receive any response from any part of the world. We thought that certain nations would soon join the movement, but that did not happen. After the passage of years, this thought seeped into the bodies and minds of nations. They gradually changed until a capacity was created. This is the case with all historical movements. Historical movements might appear to be abrupt, but none of them are actually abrupt. They are gradual, but they need a spark. Then a single event might trigger a movement, releasing the energy that has accumulated over time, just like what happened in Egypt or certain other places. It took us thirty years to reach this point. Therefore, this movement is an important movement. The colonialists and superpowers are afraid of this movement in the real sense of the word. These threats, sanctions, conflicts and other such things are all caused by fear.

I am not claiming that they are afraid of the Islamic Republic, especially as a government or as an army. This is not the issue. They are afraid of the movement. They are afraid of this unprecedented phenomenon that is completely unknown to them. And it is in our country that the movement is being strengthened on a daily basis. They are afraid of our pious youth, our determined youth and our national sentiments which are accompanied by good - if not perfect - understanding.

You are part of this sensitive and important organization. The Armed Forces are sensitive and important. You should continue like this. In the meeting with esteemed commanders I quoted a sentence from a commander. During the early years after the victory of the Revolution, the commander came to me and made an accurate point that I liked very much. It stuck in my mind. He said, "There is an element of leadership in command." You are the future commanders of the Ground Forces and the Army and you should improve your leadership qualities. Command means issuing a set of orders, telling people what to do and what not to do. Leadership means showing the standards that would take the place of those orders, giving rise to a movement without having to order people what to do and what not to do, a movement that originates from the heart. Instead of establishing a relationship with bodies, it is necessary to establish a relationship with hearts. You should create and strengthen this capacity in yourselves, in which case your country and nation will definitely achieve victory. That is to say, these feelings and this state of mind will prove helpful in difficult times. I have seen certain examples in this regard. Certain people - such as Shahid Sayyad Shirazi and Shahid Babai - are very famous and everybody knows them: those who were present from the beginning to the end of the war and were finally martyred. But I have met many such people in the Armed Forces during the war, both on the front line and in the meetings that used to be held behind the front line in order to make decisions. And this is very important as well. Often the courageous actions that are carried out on the front line originate from the determination and willpower that is mainly shaped behind the front line. If the determination is sincere and if it can make its way to the front line, then those courageous actions take place on the front line. And sometimes one could clearly witness these courageous actions. You should take these things into consideration.

In any case the Ground Forces are important. The Ground Forces are a crucial part of the Army. The Ground Forces have always been described as the spine of the Army. It might be that ground battle is less likely in the conventional wars that take place in the modern world. And this is really the case. Today naval and air defense is more likely to happen in a war. However, the Ground Forces should always maintain and improve their preparedness. Genuine preparedness consists of religious faith, motivation, training, military knowledge, the necessary expertise, being on standby and firmness of character. One's ethical and behavioral character should be so strong that different temptations cannot affect it. Sometimes certain temptations might affect and overwhelm people. There are some people who are humiliated for the sake of money, social position and carnal desires. The most honorable and powerful people are those who refuse to give in to temptation. Of course, this does not mean that we should turn our backs on the attractions of life. It just means that we should resist being overwhelmed by these attractions. Otherwise Islam neither tells people to avoid money, nor does it tell people to avoid benefiting from the attractions of life. Islam only says that people must not be overwhelmed by these attractions. It is necessary to have the power to resist and to exercise self-restraint, which makes you prepared.

There are many things that I would like discuss with you dear friends, brothers and youth, but there is not enough time. I hope Allah the Exalted bestows success on you.

Dear God, bestow Your blessings on these people. Dear God, bestow Your blessings on the Iranian nation. Bestow Your grace and blessings on our Armed Forces and on the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army. Dear God, make the bond of kindness, brotherhood, friendship and closeness stronger among different organizations of the Armed Forces, including the Army, the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps, Basij and the Police Force. Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household, help us be among the servants about whom You have said, "Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Allah." [The Holy Quran, 5: 119] Dear God, help us be among the servants whom You have promised to protect and support. Dear God, make us benefit from the prayers of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake) and fulfill his prayers that are related to us.

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings

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