Presenter: Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta June 07, 2012
Remarks by Secretary Panetta to International Security Assistance Force Joint Command (IJC) Troops in Afghanistan
SECRETARY LEON PANETTA: Good to be with you. This is -- this is my fourth trip to Afghanistan as secretary of defense. And as always, the greatest -- the greatest thing that I experience in this job as defense secretary is the chance to be able to go out and to see the men and women in uniform that serve our country. You guys are the best. And I want to thank you.
On behalf of the American people, I want to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice. You've done everything that your country has asked you to do. And the result is, frankly, that after 10 years of war, you know, we are at a turning point. And it's because there have been those that have been willing to put their lives on the line. That's been the key to our ability to move forward, to bring the mission in Iraq to an end and to now, hopefully, be able to accomplish the mission here in Afghanistan as well.
One thing that I've seen is that because of the great leadership here -- General Allen, Ambassador Crocker, all of the fine commanders that are here and all of you -- we put a very good plan into place to try to accomplish this mission. And you know, we -- we've been able to put what was a difficult and, in some ways, impossible challenge -- we've been able to put this country in the right direction.
The reality is we have weakened the Taliban. There's an uptick obviously, as we all expected, but the level of violence still remains down from the past. The reason for that is that we've taken the battle to them. And that's what you have to do. And you've done that. We've been able to get the Afghan security force to engage, to be a part of the operations, to assume responsibility for security and to be able to provide what is absolutely important for this country: a force that can help secure this country.
We've been able to transition areas to Afghan security and control. We now have 50 percent of their population under their security and control, and the next tranche of areas is going to have about 75 percent of their population under Afghan security control. So we're headed in the right direction, and it's because of great leadership, but more importantly it's because of you and what you've been willing to do on behalf of our country.
I know this is not -- this is still not going to be an easy fight. We still have a lot of challenges to confront. We've got a resilient enemy that's going to try to use any tactic they can to come at us. We're also dealing with a safe haven in which Haqqani forces can move across that border and then go back into their safe havens. And very frankly, we have every responsibility to defend ourselves. And we are going to make very clear that we are prepared to take them on. And we've got to put pressure on Pakistan to take them on as well.
What happened the other day in Salerno is an indication that they're going to continue to try to come at us. Let me be very clear, they're -- anybody who attacks U.S. soldiers is our enemy, and we're not going to take it. We have got to be able to defend ourselves. What you're -- you've been doing, you take the battle to them, and that's what counts. And we've got to make sure that we continue to put pressure to move this effort forward so that we accomplish the mission here.
Now the mission is an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself so that the Taliban and terrorists and al-Qaida never again can establish a safe haven here from which to attack our country. And let me be very clear with all of you. You know, it's -- I know, you know, there's a lot of sacrifice and service that's involved here. This is not just about Afghanistan. This is about protecting the American people, protecting those we love so that they are never again attacked by a terrorist enemy that would go after our country. We sent a very clear message: Nobody attacks America and gets away with it. Nobody attacks America and gets away with it.
And because of you, because of what you've been willing to do, because of your service, because of your sacrifice and because, frankly, of the sacrifice of your families that have provided the necessary support for all of you to be able to do what you do, that is our great strength. I'm very proud of our military. We have the strongest military in the world. I've got -- we've got great weapons. We've got great technology. We've got great services. We've got great capabilities. But the strength of the United States military are the men and women in uniform that are willing to serve our country. That's our great strength, and that's what makes us the strongest military power in the world.
Everywhere I've gone this trip -- and I've gone to a lot of interesting places; I went to Singapore to talk to the -- the conference there, the Shangri-La Dialogue, to talk about our strategy for what we're doing and where we intend to go in the 21st century. I went to Vietnam, was in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam -- first secretary of defense to go into Cam Rank Bay since the war -- sit down with the Vietnamese and talk about an effort to see if we can move forward together, develop their capabilities. I just was in India talking about the same issue. Everywhere I go, I have to tell you, there is tremendous respect for United States military because of our ability to get the job done. We keep our focus, we keep our eye on the -- on the objective and we get it done.
And so I just want to say thank you. Thank you for what you're willing to do. I thank your families for what they're willing to do. I've told you what this fundamental mission is all about. It's about not just giving Afghanistan the opportunity to have a better life for their children, it is about making sure that we give our children a better life for the future. So thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice. God bless you for what you're doing. Thank you.
