Admin l Thursday, Januay 05, 2017
WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense on Wednesday held a farewell parade for President Barack Obama whose tenure comes to an end Midnight January 19, 2017.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosted the armed forces full honour farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia. Vice President Joe Biden was a guest of honor.
“I can stand before you today and say that there has been no greater privilege and no greater honor, than serving as commander in chief of the greatest military in the history of the world,” Obama said.
“From South Asia to Africa, we have forged partnerships to go after terrorists that threaten us”, adding that ISIL terrorists “have lost about half of their territory. “They are losing their leaders, towns and cities are being liberated,” he said.
The president said has no doubt that ISIL “will be destroyed” due to the efforts of the U.S.
“Women can now serve in military combat roles, Obama said. In addition, service members do not have to hide who they are to serve the country they love”, he said.
Carter and Dunford thanked Obama for his commitment to the troops and lauded his strategic leadership and decisions that protected the nation and strengthened the force.
“Through it all, President Obama has led our military with an appreciation that America’s defense is so vital that we, to whom it is entrusted, must ensure its continuity and excellence across the years and across the domains of armed conflict.
“In the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the president consistently supported the development and acceleration of the coalition military campaign plan”, the secretary said.
That effort, Carter said, is “focused on destroying the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on this evil ideology in Iraq and Syria, countering the ISIL cancer’s metastases everywhere they emerge.”
According to him, Obama directed eight years of “unrelenting strikes on al-Qaida to devastate that terrorist organization both before and after bringing Osama bin Laden to justice,” Carter, adding that Obama has built a counterterrorism apparatus that has thwarted “countless plots” against the homeland, according to Carter. The president, Carter said, did all this consistent with the values of the United States.
“Our president knows, as he’s put it, that we lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals we fight to defend,” the secretary said, adding that his other achievement include the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, standing with NATO allies to lead a united response to deter Russian aggression, and securing an accord that is preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
In his remarks, Joe Dunford noted that the United States has been at war throughout Obama’s presidency.
“That’s a period longer than any other American president,” the general said. “And throughout those years, you’ve always been there for us”, he said, adding that the president visited deployed troops around the world, spent time with wounded warriors, traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive the remains of the fallen and visited the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
“Mr. President, thank you for being a commander in chief that we have been proud to follow,” the chairman said.
