We don't expect the powers of evil and vice to fulfill pledges or keep promises

Blessed be our valiant armed forces on their Day, which is anointed with purest virtue and decorated with the noblest of feats which are recorded in their immortal and glorious annals. To preserve the purity of their virtuous qualities and to defend them, our armed forces have had to wade through a lot of blood - pure and impure.

Blessed be the martyrs!

Blessed be the martyrs who illuminate the flagstaff of Iraq!

Let our nation take pride in its great army, the bearer of its mission!

Let our people, the great and loyal people of Iraq, take pride in their faithful army, their true and dutiful son!

Great people of Iraq, sons of our glorious nation, Brothers;

After this brief talk on this highborn occasion of ours, some of you may ask: What about politics and politicians? What about the embargo and those who impose it? How should it and what must be done for the present and future?

Here I will say, briefly too - for we have already discussed this in details and elaborated on it on occasions other than this - that very early, since 1991 and 1992, we have been reiterating that we should not expect the powers of evil and vice to fulfil a pledge or keep a promise. Pledge-fulfilling and promise-keeping are not characteristics of them. They have no other characteristics but treachery, aggression, breaking promises, cancelling covenants and doing everything that is vile and injurious. We have said it with certainty that the embargo will not be lifted by a Security Council resolution but will corrode by itself. Even if a Security Council resolution will one day be taken in this respect, after all evil attempts have failed and all nests of poisonous wasps have been shattered before the Will of the strong, faithful, truthful, just and honest Iraq-- such a resolution will come as an expression of this failure and not as the fulfilment of a promise or the discharge of an obligation.

This has become obvious to you generally and in detail after all that has passed by you and all that you have passed through.

As for now, it pleases us to say to you briefly and without going into details, that the stage of embargo corrosion is no longer something which we predict or wait for. It has actually started, thanks, after thanking the Almighty God, to your great fortitude and endurance. Therefore, and after having dismissed what is false in what has been presented to us as hopes to build upon, we have nothing before us but to keep on the path we have taken and cling to the spirit of fortitude and endurance we have been upholding in our state of becoming. Thus, God may grant us a great victory on every day and every while. On each flagstaff of this victory you will have a lofty banner of honour and an additional asset of potency to lead life successfully and to keep you the foremost model for the nation and for humanity at large.

In the field of politics and politicians, we say that, originally, we did not start with politics; rather, we started with principles. Principles have their own way, which is one of strife and struggle. Their basic means is justice, and their end, after pleasing God, is to please the People and the Nation. Therefore, we have never had any role in the world of acrobatic acts on tight ropes, and we have never participated and will never participate in the slave market of this world, bargaining away honour, virtue and the interests of the people and the nation.

The beginning and the far line on the horizon, or the line at hand, ought to, or rather, must be based on the principles of the starting line, while interacting genuinely with all colours of life so that we may find what relates to the colour we have chosen since long and have given, as a glorious nation and a great people, generous sacrifices and gracious patience.