Speech [Understanding between the military and the people]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I would like to thank you, the strong and pious youth who have come to meet me from a close distance and for declaring your presence in all the problems that our country is facing.

You are aware that today, the country has a lot disturbances. They built a disorderly nation, left it behind and went away. Now, you are the heirs to an almost ruined country. All of us must strive now- now that we have destroyed a huge barrier and behind this barrier we see so much of destruction- to build this country up. The effort is that every group in the same location that you are located should perform well in that location. It does not mean that you who are serving in a particular location should strive to serve in another location. To strive to build up means that every group in every locality should do its job well in the task that has been entrusted to him. All the strata of the country should think that now the country is Islamic and that they must act according to the instructions of Islam; they should not be lax at work; they should not deviate in their job, be trustworthy and with devotion to God.

You noticed that in this Revolution all your hearts turned toward the nation, and God, the Blessed and Exalted, cause these hearts to turn. Otherwise, a military man who was on the other side must on the basis of the situation in the military, move in the opposite direction. But you noticed that your hearts turned to this side and caused various groups to join with the people, to be in line with the people, to cry out in one voice; and this resulted in the victory of the nation- a nation that had nothing while the other side had everything. It was the will of God that enabled us to achieve victory. We must act in such a way that these divine favors are kept secure for us; we should safeguard it; we should be devoted to God; we should serve the people. All of us should change our approach that we had during the taghouti regime. We should endeavor to serve the country; to serve the nation.

The military must be the guardian of a nation and the guardian of the country; and the same is true for the rest of the disciplinary forces. We must act in such a way that we regard the nation as our brothers; and the nation also regard them as their brothers. They must be the supporters of the nation; and the nation should be their supporters. If the government and the nation, the military and the nation, the disciplinary forces and the people of a country unite and come together and both of them feel that they must serve each other, such a country will not be defeated.

The main reason for the defeat of countries is the decay that starts from within them. Their military gets separated from them; their people turn their backs on them. This same victory that you witnessed in Iran, you saw how the nation turned its back on them and cry out," We do not want you." The military also was from this very nation; the gendarmerie was from this same nation; they were brethren and saw that they could not oppose; they could not repress the nation to the end. This was why they joined the people. The destructions occur when a country alienates its disciplinary forces from the nation; its military gets separated from the nation such that when the nation sees the military, it runs away from it while the military also harbors the desire to suppress the people! The same is true for its gendarmerie forces; the same with its police and the same apply for its administrative offices. When a country gets into such a situation where its people get alienated and the government with its entire means also get alienated; this government has no backing. The nation must support the governments. A government that has no backing will fail. All the governments abroad that are failures- and you saw that our own which was a monarchy also busted- is for this very reason that there was no understanding between the regime and the nation. If the nation had harmony with the regime, these problems would not have occurred; right now you would have been busy with your own job and we would be busy with ours. These problems occurred because of this very reason that the governments would resist the will of the people and take a stand against them; the people too would do likewise vis-a-vis the government. When it reaches this point, it cannot endure. It is possible that the bayonet can hold up to a time, but it cannot endure. This is while if both the government and the people are united; are friends; and the government regards itself to be the servants of the nation while the people regard themselves as their supporters; both of them wish to serve each other- such a nation and government will never fail. As long as you are with the nation and as long as you are devoted to God, there shall be no failure for you.

Avoid being alienated from the people; they want to divide you. The people also must avoid being alienated from you. When these two forces are united, no power can defeat them. All the foreign powers, almost all of them which are in touch- well some are not in touch- whether the superpowers or those powers that were in touch with this country, all of them tried to keep Muhammad Rida in power; all their efforts were directed at- if I do not say all, then let me say the majority with a few of exceptions- keeping him but because the nation did not want something, it did not happen. When the nation does not want, the disciplinary forces can no longer be faithful to a single person. It is not possible that the disciplinary forces that are from this very people, one whose son is among the crowd, his brother is among the population; his wife is from among the people renounce everything for the sake of a single person. What for? If it is for the sake of God and Islam, one can make sacrifices for God or for Islam or because of belief; but at times these matters are not involved. It is a regime that is taghouti. It is meaningless for a person to make sacrifices for the sake of a single person. For this reason and because he did not have a backing, when the nation with bare hands brought pressure, you too joined with them and so did all the disciplinary forces cross over to this side. He, too, when he saw that the matter has decayed from within, was not able to do anything about it nor could others. Make efforts to unite your forces with the nation; come to an understanding with the nation.

May God protect all of you and make you to become the soldiers of the Imam of the Time (`a).