Speech [Problems in the army; accepting responsibility and serving the nation]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate the Merciful

I am aware of all the problems you mention. I know too, army is not an army as long as hierarchy is neglected and discipline is forgotten. The army, in which a low-ranking officer does not obey the high rank, is not qualified to defend the country's frontiers. There is no doubt in it. I also know that these confused affairs in the army- that have come to us from the past- have affected the other strata of the people and weakened their concerns for the current affairs. I also know that there are disputes in the disciplinary committees everywhere in Iran. I know all about these. We know the problems, but it takes time to uproot them. Today problems are many for the government, for the army and for all strata of the people. Presently problems are ever increasing. But, uprooting problems is not possible in a short time, not in a matter of days, weeks or months. These problems must be overcome gradually, but the important thing is our commitment to serving despite these problems.

At a time, we used to say it is the responsibility of the army to protect our frontiers. Now, the army is in charge of this. At another time, we used to say it is the duty of the gendarmerie to take care of security in the cities. Gendarmerie used to reject the responsibility and attributed it as a duty of the city police. These governmental security organizations used to transfer responsibility to one another. This was their ordinary job; otherwise, they were responsible for a special set of duties. In civil crises, for instance, in the uprising of the farmers communities- it was the gendarmerie that was expected to stop the revolt. But when you see your country has no agriculture, no harvest, and hunger is increasing, the country is in danger, the army should join the gendarmerie regardless of their organizational responsibility. In another case, if we see arms trafficking is increasing at our borders, corrupt people are entering secretly with their weaponry, or weaponry is smuggled for the corrupted people inside the country for the armament of anti-revolutionaries, opponents of the nation and Islam, and if we come to know it too late, the gendarmerie and all other armed forces should come to help.

The gendarmerie should help the army and the Revolutionary Guard should help both in national security, and in relief works for natural disasters such as earthquakes. One cannot say let our religious brothers die in the debris, because it is the duty of the Red Crescent Society. Man should obligate himself to save these people at any cost.

Today, our country is suffering some sort of civil unrest that is possible to overcome. The present unrest is so much important, but if we neglect them today, in future they will become dangerous. I have no fear of these rebellions because all the people of the nation are united today, as they united in the past and overthrew the Shah. Even the foreign powers could not send them astray. Therefore, we have no fear of the remaining corrupt masterminds of conspiracies. However, the enemy outside must be taken seriously. The limited number of enemies might grow larger little by little, and they may deceive greater numbers of the ignorant people. We must be on alert and watchful. We must awaken those deceived and do not take them for granted, saying they have a few guns only. What do we ourselves have? Not at all, we must strongly fight arms trafficking through our frontiers. At this sensitive time, we should not let these things happen; we must not take it for granted as we did in the past. I gave my recommendations to the senior officials of the army and gendarmerie on patrolling the borders. We want to have it improved. There were some disputes in the army in connection with transferring military prisoners from the Qasr prison, because there was rumor in the air that they wanted to release them when transferring. You know all about the story and public belief in a probable conspiracy. I knew they could not stage conspiracy, but I saw doubts in the nation and growing rumors about a possible conspiracy. These things must not happen in our army, and there should be no similar misunderstanding in future.

In the majority of my speeches, both in public and in army gatherings I have talked about the army, and how it should be. I still talk about it in my visits, and stress on mobilization of the army; and the army should be equipped in the way we want it. Words cannot speak louder than actions. We talked about it many times. It is a matter of minor and major sins. You were lying at a time, but you do not today, and this is not the issue. What I am concerned about is the major sin that is minor to the criminals. This major sin is quite different from what they consider, and the minor sin we have forgiven is far below the crime of these criminals and betrayers. Any hiring and firing in the army, police, and gendarmerie should be within the authority of the commanders, and no one is allowed to go there, capture the barracks, and install someone there. This is illogical and unlawful, and we have spoken about it for many times. We recommend it even now. At any rate, it is not possible to forgive someone who has practiced treachery in this country for over 20 years In another instance, there may be someone who has opposed revolution on the streets but has not killed anyone, nor has he practiced treason, then his sin is minor and we forgive him. By minor sin we refer to anything below crime and treason. At another time, I will interpret it, God willing.

I wish all the best for you. Today is the day of serving the nation. Today, none of you can reject the responsibilities on your shoulder. This is a matter of conscience, a religious, divine, and national responsibility. Today you must not say," Why should I work and somebody else take its benefit"; now we should not be like that. Today, there is no sign of those plundering your treasuries. There may be some of them, but they are too weak to do some harm or exploit you. Today, the country is yours. This means each of us should consider this country a likeness of our own family or in broader sense, consider the nation as our family members. The country is ours, and the unrest should be suppressed by us.

An individual is an individual but can work as much as one person. Society is made of individuals, and then if an individual is unable to work, there will be no chance for you to work. No one can lift a super-heavy stone but a thousand people, uniting their power, can lift it. Then all individuals would have shared in the process; each of us has a power to his own capacity. Or in another instance, a drop is a drop but joining of drops makes floods, and these floods gather somewhere to make seas. Individuals are like drops. They are weak and vulnerable when alone, but powerful and invulnerable when in union. Any individual must think of his share of the mighty work not to his limited power. When this thought become prevalent among all individuals in the nation, and when all persons obligated themselves to work for their nation, and when 35 million [the then Iranian population] worked for their nation, there remained no unsolved problem. On the contrary, if they consider the weak side and consider themselves unable individuals- for instance, me as a clergy, a laborer, etc.- problems will linger on.

All of us are religiously obligated to work as much as we can. Do not transfer your responsibilities and duties to one another, to the gendarmerie, or from the gendarmerie to yourself. Encourage everyone to perform his responsibility, enlighten your friends, and forbid them from listening to the enemies. Observe hierarchy in the army. Those who prevent the formation of an army and development of the country by omitting the hierarchy in the army are treacherous enemies. Enlighten them and guide them, or ask somebody else to guide them. I want to reiterate what I have said in my previous talks. Those, who practiced treason and did crime, were either arrested or fled, and the remaining people in the army work for the glory of Islam. The army today, is the army of Islam and it is praiseworthy. No one is allowed to disrespect this army. Let my say that warning in words is something, and making certain individuals to something is another thing.

At any rate, you can be sure that it is not the case that they will come and arrest all! All of you are our religious brothers; we sit and talk about our problems. We are not enemies, we are all friends and brothers, and God willing, we will help in the advancement of this movement to the end. I know all about your problems and I am sorry to see such violations of discipline in the army. I hope it will be gradually improved. Let my announce that God forbid, if you find somebody neglecting discipline, report it to his senior commander and let everything be abided by law. God willing, I will legalize this. May God protect you all.