Paying Tribute to the Fallen

Addressing the audience after Carter’s introduction, Ghani said, “I want to first pay tribute to … [the] 2,215 Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice. To more than 20,000 American soldiers who have been wounded in action … [and] close to a million American service men and women who have gotten to know my country.”

American troops have been in Afghanistan’s most-remote valleys and on the highest peaks, in parched deserts and beautiful valleys, he said, “but also in the most demanding situations. Each one of you has left a legacy, but I also understand that Afghanistan has marked you.”

Ghani added, “When you wake up at night, sometimes you're not sure whether you're back there or here, but what gratifies me as the president of Afghanistan is what I've had the honor to hear repeatedly from American veterans, ‘I have left a piece of my heart in Afghanistan.’ Thank you,” he said to applause.

Each service member deployed to Afghanistan also left a memory in the heart of every Afghan that they encountered, Ghani added.

'Not There Just to Fight'

“You were not there just to fight. … You built schools, you built dams, you build roads, and while the physical infrastructure [has] changed lives, it is the attitude [of caring, discipline and sacrifice] that you brought with it. … The Afghan people, but particularly the Afghan security forces, honor that attitude,” the Afghan president said.

The U.S. combat role in Afghanistan ended on Dec. 31, 2014, and the legacy is a proud Afghan security force “that has dealt with the best of you and emulates the best of your example,” he said.

Ghani told the Pentagon audience that he will name a section of the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul, where he said generations of Afghans will be trained, in honor of Army Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, who served as deputy commanding general of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.

Greene, whose widow was in the audience this morning, was the first U.S. general officer killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and more than a dozen others were killed and more were wounded in an attack at the military academy by a lone gunman in August 2014.

Ghani also paid tribute to “tough partners” Carter and Kerry, and to President Barack Obama for their long-standing support of Afghanistan.

And he thanked the American taxpayer, the men and women who are making “your hard-earned dollars available for Afghanistan. And because of that, the government of national unity … is committed to account for every single one of those dollars and pennies.”

This phase of the U.S.-Afghan partnership with the defense community is about building systems, procedures and processes, Ghani said, so the right leadership and the dedicated staff can use those resources for the best purpose.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-13