Transcript of address to troops given by the Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, in Basra on Wednesday, 17 December 2008.
Prime Minister:
Can I say first of all what a great pleasure it is to be here, because I am here to thank you, I am here to thank you for the work that you do on behalf of the British Armed Forces, to thank you for the work that you do on behalf of the whole of the people of Britain, to thank you for your professionalism, to thank you for your courage, to thank you for [Indistinct].
I have just been in Baghdad this morning talking to Prime Minister Maliki, and I said to him a few months ago that our objectives were very clear about what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to achieve greater security with Iraqi forces able as police and armed forces to run their own affairs. And thanks to you, training up the Iraqi forces, we are achieving that. We wanted to achieve a stronger democracy, and local government elections are going to take place on 31 January and thanks to you they will go ahead. We wanted to achieve economic development in the area so that people have a stake in the future, and thanks to you, people can go about their everyday lives and people are now getting jobs and people are in businesses, and I have just been at the port this afternoon and just seen the potential of this whole area. We said we would transfer the airport to civilian patrol, and of course that happens on 1 January.
So we have set ourselves tasks and thanks to you we have achieved them. So I was able to say to Prime Minister Maliki today that we will be able to complete our mission before the end of May next year, and it is thanks to you that we can say to people in Britain that what we have set out to achieve is being achieved and will be achieved by the end of May next year. And to all of you who have done so much to make that possible, I want to express my thanks, but also the thanks of the British people.
And I know you are here at Christmas. I thought that I was going to bring the Christmas mail and presents to you, but they have been arriving in thousands, and it is a reflection of the fact that the British people want to thank you for what you are doing.
And please, I was going to say first that you should take off your shoes, because the.. [Indistinct] .. thing in Iraq these days is to throw shoes at people.
But I do say that the presents that you are receiving from people who in many cases you will never know or have met, are a reflection of the esteem and regard and thanks that the British people want to give you.
We commemorated only a few minutes ago the 178 people who have died serving our country in Iraq. And I say to you, we owe them, as you know, a debt of gratitude and they will not be forgotten and they live on in the hearts of those that they have left behind. I am grateful to all those who have served, some who have been injured and have come back, and I am particularly grateful to people who have been on their first, second and sometimes third and fourth tours here. I hope that you can see the difference that you have made over that period of time.
This is a success story, thanks to you. You are making a difference in the great spirit of our British armed forces. We owe you that debt of gratitude for what you are achieving.
I hope that those of you who are here at Christmas, I know that there are a lot of plans for Christmas parties that the Chief of the Defence Staff doesn’t know about, I hope you will all be able to celebrate Christmas.
I want to be here before Christmas to thank you on behalf of the British people for what you have done. Your professionalism is second to none and that is why in every country and continent around the world people understand that the British armed forces are a great asset to our country and they, as I am, are very proud of what you do. Your courage is legendary, and as Winston Churchill said that courage was the greatest quality of all because it is upon courage that everything else depends. Without courage you cannot do the jobs that are necessary, and your courage is something that I want to applaud today.
So please celebrate Christmas, please understand that your contribution has made a huge difference to Iraq, please understand also that because of your contribution we are able to say that our mission is completed by the end of May next year and people will be able to come home.
Thank you for everything you are doing. Have a great Christmas. We are really, really proud of everything you are doing.
Thank you very much.
delicious
digg
facebook
