We are at war!

President George Maxwell Richards called on the Defence Force to defend the country in a war for its soul, when he addressed yesterday’s Ceremonial Parade for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on its 41st Anniversary, at Teteron Barracks. 

Noting foreign wars, President Richards said: “You are being called upon to defend the sovereign good of our country in a different way. Within recent times the enemies of the State, from within, have visited upon this nation a series of assaults such as have not been experienced in the past.” Saying that these assaults had galvanised persons who stand on the side of freedom from fear, Richards said: “Our right to peace and security is under threat and this must not be allowed to continue. You the men and women of the Defence Force together with other branches of the armed forces are in the vanguard of ferreting out and bringing to justice these usurpers of the peace and these challengers of our reputation as a country and people whose stability provides the climate for harmonious living and international trade and development. But you need the support of all of us citizens of this nation to defend our democracy against those who would mislead our youth unto the path of the quick fix, dissolute living and downright anarchy.”

He said the cost to us now and to future generations was too high for us to wash our hands of collective responsibility. He declared: “Whether we care to accept it or not we are in a war. It is a war for the soul of the country. It is a war in which the citizens must collaborate with you in order to win. We must brook no traitors and cowards nor the indolent. What is at stake is our very future and we must not capitulate.” Noting that service in the Defence Force was not just a job but a sacred trust, Richards concluded with a Latin quote “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” meaning “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”