Speech [The scheme to undermine the army; criticizing improper attitudes]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I am very distressed to see some corrupt individuals finding excuses to undermine the army as the result of the treachery and unawareness of some of its personnel. All of our government and national bodies need to be reinforced at the present time. Our people are not involved in these issues that are said to essentially weaken the army, the gendarmerie and the rest of the armed forces. These issues concern the groups who wish to demoralize the army and the nation so that in case something (untoward), God forbid, occurs following such demoralization, the armed forces will be powerless (to take action). This is most regretful. Today, with the situation we are in, we need to be sympathetic to one another; we need to be cooperative and orderly. If in a country, rules and regulations are not respected, which is necessary for its administration, that is if, [for example] the general in the armed forces is not obeyed; if the orders of the commander-in-chief are not carried out; if the lower ranks do not submit to the colonel; if such order does not exist in the system, then it is no system. If the administration is disorganized; if there is no coordination among the armed forces, we should not expect our country to improve. The opponent groups are the ones responsible for creating these problems. If there are one or two hundred corrupt individuals in the army, but it forcefully blocks the actions of these individuals and uncovers such plots with help of the Islamic guards and thus the conspiracy fails «1», the army should not be criticized [for the conspiracy of those personnel] because it effectively prevented them from carrying out their evil intentions. This Army is that force which did this [i. e. crushed the conspiracy] and, in cooperation with the Islamic guards, effectively accomplished its mission in Kurdistan and other regions.

Unfortunately, wherever you see and point at, there are individuals (who are of course in the minority) who want to spoil everything; even in the Majlis and the proposed cabinet I witness attitudes that are not in line with our national interests and Islam. If at this stage that we are in, all the various departments and agencies do not unite, we must await disaster. The army must carry out its functions with all the power it has. All the forces that are subject to the orders of the higher authorities in the set-up; those that are the non-commissioned or high-ranking officers, or those that are commanders, must obey their superiors. Obeying the orders of the superiors is a religious duty today. It is not a mere formality as it used to be in the past when there would be no problem in evading orders as much as one could. Today, the one in charge of everything is the Blessed and Exalted God who witnesses everything visible and hidden. If we are to put an end to these disturbances that exist in the country at present, there is no other course but for the armed forces to cooperate among themselves, and the Majlis to cooperate with, let me say, the government, the president and other bodies. Otherwise, we should not expect our country to attain final victory. We have not won final victory as yet. Our success in removing the power that was an obstacle in our path was because of the army, the Islamic guards, the security forces and the nation; they all shared in this victory. We must not be unappreciative of the part played by everyone. We must appreciate their endeavors. If, for instance, one hundred of the clergymen- of whom there are, for instance, so many- turned out to be SAVAK agents, we must not humiliate the clergy for it. If several SAVAK agents were discovered in the government departments, we must not say that the whole department is against us. It is obvious that in a country where a regime has ruled for fifty, sixty years, and has trained people according to its own interests, we must not expect everything to be set right quickly. The appropriate expectation at this point, however, is that all of us work together to purge the undesirable elements and to sift [all the departments, agencies and offices] to discover those who are plotting, or have plotted (against us), and to hand them over [to the authorities].

I have repeated this many times that if there are individuals in the Army who are against [Islamic] law, who are conspirators, who are of the taghout, who hold harmful beliefs or whose actions are corrupt, the army, itself must take responsibility to get rid of such personnel. And if the courts ask the army to hand them over, the army must obey [and hand them in]. Of course, the judiciary or the pasdars must not take action themselves, for we do not want any commotion that would destroy us [altogether]. All the forces must be united and the chain of command must be observed. The armed forces must be united and the higher ranks must be obeyed. They must obey the commander-in-chief and the personnel must take orders from their commanders so that we would have an orderly country. The foreign regimes like to see disorder and savagery in Iran so that they would have an excuse [to claim that we cannot govern ourselves and thus] they would have to appoint an authority to govern our affairs. Thus, at this stage [more than any other time], our people must be vigilant and follow the government, the President, the army, gendarmerie, the Police and the pasdars and it is so. A country whose people support its administration and armed forces cannot be harmed. If several corrupt people are detected in an office, it does not mean that everyone is corrupt. There are corrupt individuals in the clergy but it is not right to claim that they are all corrupt. There are corrupt businessmen, but we cannot say that all of them are corrupt. There are corrupt persons, of course, in every outfit. And the army, of course, is obliged to get rid of its undesirable personnel and must not shirk in fulfilling this duty so that those who have bad intentions and try to subvert our regime do not claim that the army is not taking the appropriate measures to cleanse itself, and (by making such claims) undermine this department. The army must be purged, and you [the army authorities] must identify such people yourselves. The gendarmerie, the pasdars and all the others are also responsible for identifying such people [and purging their outfits]. This is a general issue. This country belongs to all of you. This country is now yours. It is not like before when you did the work but America and the Soviet Union reaped the benefits. You and your nation will now derive the benefits of your efforts.

Thus all the forces must unite and support each other. The Majlis must support the armed forces and all the other departments; it must support the government and the President; and the President must also support all of those organs. The army must obey the President because he is the Commander-in-Chief and the President in turn must be as a father to them. The issue is Islam; it is different from those other systems that flaunt their power and the ones who like to boast and show-off. We must all sacrifice ourselves and we must seek the progress of our religion; not our individual interests. When religion is the issue, you and I, the government organs (officials) and everyone else must disregard ourselves and only seek the progress of the religion. We must sacrifice ourselves just like the first Muslims. The first Muslims never cared about drawing attention to themselves. Everyone sought the religion's progress, and thus they succeeded. And even though they were weak [in terms of material power] they destroyed the big powers. But now, God be praised, you are strong. You have a thirty five million population supporting you. And so is there any reason to fear? You must not fear anything. You have 35 million people supporting you. If anything happens anywhere, these 35 million will unitedly support you. Therefore, we should not be scared of any conspiracy. There will be future conspiracies; they will again be hatched. But no; none of them will work. They [i. e. the enemies] combined all their forces, but failed, thank God. They will not be able to take any action anytime soon. The only thing they think about right now is to get away. They are not thinking about regrouping; they are trying their best to find a wat to flee. Do not fear the talk of further conspiracies ahead. Do not pay heed to what Bakhtiyar «2» says from abroad, for example, or what others say. They just want to demoralize us and make us dispirited so that they would be able to succeed, owing to our dispiritedness in case they decide to carry out an operation after five years, for instance. But when a whole nation is backing us there is nothing to fear. Today we are all part of the nation. You [i. e. the army] are not separate from the people. You are the same ones whom people would shower with flowers, and will do so in future when you come among them. And you do not intend to oppress the nation. You are their brothers and we are all together. All these forces must join hands. This is a religious obligation for all. It is religiously binding upon all the Majlis deputies to cooperate with the government and the President. And it is the religious duty of the President and the government to be in step with the Majlis and cooperate with it.

We will succeed if there is harmony among you. But if everybody (the forces) goes their own way and flaunts their power, and others want to take another path- if the pasdars, for example, want to interfere in the affairs of the gendarmerie, and the gendarmerie in those of the pasdars, and both of them interfere with the army, and others in other places, the committees interfere somewhere else, and other organs elsewhere- then all these affairs will be in a mess. Everyone should do their work as well as they can. If all the various groups and individuals in a country do their work well that country will become orderly and will progress. But if everyone interferes in one another's affairs; if I interfere in your affairs and you interfere in mine, neither will I be able to do my work properly, nor you, yours. This is a religious and divine duty that I am telling everybody. This does not only pertain to you; it concerns everyone: the pasdars, the police, the army, the Gendarmerie, the Majlis, the Government and the President. It's a religious issue, and everyone is religiously duty-bound to act accordingly. The matter which I am telling you about- it is essential and must be carried out- is that everyone should act according to their legal duties. The law has ordained duties for everybody. If someone neglects the law and interferes in the affairs of others, he/she has acted against his/her religious duty. Everyone must perform what they are expected according to the law: the President must perform what the law has described as his duty, his very important duty, to the best of his ability. The Majlis must perform those duties prescribed for it by law, and thus it should not interfere in the execution of the legislation. The Executive must also not interfere in the work of the Legislature and both of them must refrain from interfering in the affairs of the Judiciary. The judicial branch must perform its judicial duties, which are very important ones. The legislative branch must enact laws, which is also a very important duty. The government is the executive branch; it should perform its duties, which are also very important. The army must perform its functions within the limits of its duties, which are also very important. If every organ is to interfere in the work of another organ, the country, then, will not be a sound one. If a businessman interferes in the army's affairs it will be like a businessman interfering with religious rulings. It is not right for the army to involve itself with matters of jurisprudence and the clergy must not interfere in the affairs of the army. Such interference means that no organ is able to carry out its work. Everyone must act according to what the Blessed and Exalted Lord has ordained that policeman there, that soldier who is serving there, are held in honor in Islam; they are all brothers.

While thanking you, I want to emphasize that you must endeavor to maintain order. The soldiers must keep order; so must the pasdars and the police officers. If order is not maintained, our country will, God forbid, suffer. I hope that our country will not be harmed more than it already has been, for our intention is to serve God, and thus we should all have Him in mind. He is present, He observes and witnesses your actions. You must learn a lesson from the story of those who maintained all that power and at the same time created all that corruption [i.e. the Shah] and who are now so sick that prefer to die. Beware that there is another world and that we are responsible to God (the Blessed and the Exalted).[The positions that we hold] have been entrusted to us by God. The responsibility of Islam and this Islamic country have been entrusted to us and thus if we betray our trust, we will have to explain to Islam for our treachery. We should not degrade one another; we should not talk about the mischief and corrupt acts of one another. We should all unite to carry out the purging with all our power, and at the same time, we must be kind and friendly to one another as much as we can. God protect you all and bless you so that you could make your country progress. I hope that all of us stand guiltless in God's presence. And may God keep you healthy.