Rumsfeld thanks troops, civilians for supporting terror war

  • Published
  • By Donna Miles
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  With the March 19 approach of the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq, the secretary of defense thanked members of the military community March 12 for transforming lives, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in America too.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told servicemembers and DOD civilians at a Pentagon town-hall meeting that the struggle for freedom "has transformed the lives of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq," freeing millions of people from tyranny and oppression.

But, Rumsfeld said, the war on terror is transforming America too.

"As a nation we are rediscovering our character and our courage, qualities so profound that even the youngest (people) among us recognize and understand that something momentous is happening, not just in the mountains and the deserts of the Middle East but in our own neighborhoods and communities," he said.

The secretary said U.S. servicemembers worldwide fighting the war on terror are following in the footsteps of the Minutemen who launched America's first fight for freedom over tyranny. It is a fight he said Americans have never abandoned since the Minutemen launched the "shot heard around the world" at Lexington Green, Mass.

"(March 19) will mark the first anniversary of another fight for freedom -- Operation Iraqi Freedom," Rumsfeld said. "Its opening shots, if not heard or at least seen around the world, can remind us that Americans are still willing to fight to ensure that freedom will endure."

Rumsfeld said that, like the patriots of 1775, Americans "do not come easily to war. But also like them, neither do Americans take freedom lightly."

The fight for freedom has never been easy, Rumsfeld said, but it has been worth every sacrifice that battle has demanded.

"Freedom is worth defending; and, if it is not defended, it dies," he said.

He said history will prove that the sacrifices Americans are making in Iraq and Afghanistan are equally worthwhile.

"At the end of the day, when freedom and self-government have taken root in Iraq and that country becomes, as it will, not a threat but a force for good in that region of the world, the rightness of the coalition's efforts will be … clear," he said.

The secretary said he personally thanked servicemembers on the front lines of the war on terror during his recent visits to Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, he said, was the time to thank those more removed from the front lines but just as important to the terror war.

"Today, I thank you -- those here in the Department of Defense in Washington and elsewhere around the globe … because you are the men and women behind the troops, the ones who enable them to do the jobs that they do every day," he said.

"We say to all of them and to all of you here today, thank you for fighting freedom's fight; and, know that millions of Americans believe in you," he said.