Trump addresses Iran war during Veterans Day remarks

[0:00] As we salute our veterans, let us also express our profound love and appreciation for our [0:05] military families, past and present. They are amazing. Thank you very much. [0:17] And they are really among the very best of our nation. We're honored to be [0:24] joined as well by the First Lady of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. [0:38] The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. I had a feeling that was going to happen. He's done [0:51] a fantastic job. And he loves you and he protects you. He's all about you. Secretary of Veterans [0:59] Affairs with a 92% approval rating, the job he's doing. That's pretty good. Maybe we'll get it up [1:05] to 100 pretty soon, Doug. Doug Collins. Thank you, Doug. What a job. It's about 50 points higher [1:17] than his predecessor, I must tell you. That's a big difference. Many members of my cabinet, [1:22] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Dan Cain, he's fantastic. Thank you very much, [1:27] General. Thank you. And representatives of our amazing veteran service organizations and the [1:38] members of the United States Armed Forces who are with us today. Thank you all. We really [1:45] respect and appreciate you. Thank you all. To inherit a free nation is among the rarest blessings that any [1:56] people in history have ever known. To defend that freedom is among the hardest and highest obligations, [2:03] one of the most difficult tasks imaginable. Across every generation, American liberty has been [2:11] preserved by legions of selfless patriots who have raised their right hands and sworn an oath of flesh [2:19] and blood for a cause whose full cost could not be measured in advance. There was no way it was [2:26] doable, they thought. In every era, they've stood watch. They've held a line. They've hold a charge [2:36] bravely into the fray that few people would have wanted to do or could have done. It's something that [2:45] lies between order and chaos, freedom and tyranny, civilization and barbarism and good and evil, [2:54] exact opposite ends of the spectrum. Time and time again for 250 years, the American warrior has [3:01] returned victorious. Our republic has triumphed. And today our country is stronger than it has ever been [3:08] before. A nation without heroes is like a sky without stars or a heaven without angels. But in America, [3:19] we've never known that darkness because we've have the men and women of America's armed forces, [3:26] our guiding lights, our greatest heroes and our guardian angels. At 19 years old, Jack Myers kissed his [3:35] young bride and newborn son goodbye and went to serve as a gunner in the 692nd tank destroyer battalion [3:45] battalion in World War II. Brave people all. In the frostbitten winter of 1944, Corporal Myers found [3:55] himself in the largest battle in American history, the Battle of the Bulge. For weeks, he and his unit [4:10] fought in one of the most intense crucibles in the history of war to turn the enemy's final advance [4:18] into a unbelievable and somewhat unexpected defeat. We thought would have to go on much longer than [4:27] that. It was an incredible moment in military history. Months later, Jack's battalion was among the [4:35] first to liberate the Dachau concentration camp, coming face to face with the evil. He risked his life [4:43] to destroy. Today, Jack is a great, great grandfather and is here to receive our nation's gratitude at [4:51] 103 years old. Jack, Corporal Jack Myers, we are honored by your presence today. It's really something [5:35] you see how we all respect you, respect you so much. Thank you. And thank you for being here. [5:41] U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Moore served as one of the famous dust-off medevac pilots in Vietnam. [5:52] Boy, could they fly. Flying an incredible 1,874 combat missions and evacuating 2,782 badly wounded [6:05] soldiers. On a single day in December 1968, he twice exposed his helicopter to close-range machine [6:13] guns and sniper fire to rescue five Americans from hell. Then Douglas flew back into danger to rescue [6:21] eight more Americans as bullets ripped through his helicopter, hitting his leg, his hand, his helmet, [6:28] and sending shrapnel into his eye that blinded him. Douglas was knocked backwards and the helicopter [6:36] began to dive. But despite it all, he grabbed the flight stick, recovered the aircraft and returned [6:43] the eight men to safety nobody thought it was possible. For his actions, Douglas received our [6:49] military's second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross. Over three decades, he also received [6:56] two distinguished flying crosses, a bronze star and 33 air medals. And he is really a hero. He happens to [7:05] be with us today. Please, Colonel, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Colonel. What an honor. [7:36] Americans must always remember that our way of life is not the natural condition of mankind. [7:44] Everything we've achieved, everything that we are, everything that we hope to become is built on the [7:50] courage of those willing to endure and unimaginable and to some just unbearable and to stand strong when [7:58] all else gives way, stand stronger than anybody that's ever stood before. And I will never allow [8:06] anyone to hurt our country. We're not going to allow anyone to hurt or damage our country with [8:11] bad, foolish, horrible ideology. We're not going to let it happen. And everyone knows what I mean. [8:23] In 2010, Green Beret, Ryan Hendrickson was leading his team through a Taliban-held village in Afghanistan [8:32] at three in the morning when he was stepped on by enemy. I mean, he was, the enemy was all over and [8:41] he made the mistake, a mistake that people understood when they were in the battles of jungles. [8:48] He stepped on enemy explosives, a lot of them. The blast ripped through his lower body and he looked down to [8:56] see his shattered bones protruding from his absolutely mangled leg and arm. Certain that he would die, [9:08] Ryan's only thought as he was airlifted away was the men he was leaving behind. He couldn't stand the [9:15] thought of it. He endured 27 surgeries and two cardiac arrests. But the doctor saved both his life and his [9:24] leg. They told him his combat career was over, but Ryan was not done. 18 months later, he returned to [9:32] Afghanistan as his team cleared another village, a barrage of terrorist gunfire, pinned down two of his [9:39] men with the enemy closing in. They said they didn't have a chance. Ryan was ordered to stand down, [9:46] don't go under any circumstances, do not go. But he had not come all the way just to leave his comrades in danger [9:56] behind. He charged forward despite orders. You should have listened to those orders, but he charged forward into the [10:07] fire of that same leg. It was hit again and invalid race to rescue the dying men from the clutches of the Taliban evil group. [10:17] For his courage, he was awarded the Silver Star. Sergeant First Class Ryan Hendrickson, you saved a lot of people [10:26] that day. Thank you very much, even though you disobeyed orders, which we don't like. Thank goodness you did. [10:35] Ryan, please stand up. Thank you. These are very brave people. Whenever I visit our troops anywhere, and I do it as [11:04] often as possible, but anywhere in the world, I see that same fierce determination burning in their eyes and that same love [11:11] of country beating in their hearts. I'm pleased to report that the spirit of our armed forces is [11:17] higher than ever before, and that we have the best recruitment numbers in the history of our country. [11:23] There's never been recruitment anywhere near that. Thank you very much. And General Cain, thank you. And Pete, thank you. [11:37] Great spirit. We have a tremendous spirit. Two years ago, we had shortages. Now we have waiting lists of people [11:45] that want to get into the United States military, which is stronger and more powerful today than ever [11:52] before. We built it during my first administration. We used it a little bit. Now in Venezuela, we won the war [12:01] in 48 minutes and in one of the most stunning displays of military dominance and power the world [12:09] has ever seen. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. This Veterans Day, I also want to say a very special [12:17] thanks to every service member currently working to ensure that the world's number one state sponsor [12:23] of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never have a nuclear weapon. Thank you. Here today is a [12:44] veteran who reminds us why that mission really matters. As a young man, Dale Garner enlisted in the [12:52] Marines after the Iran hostage crisis. Soon he deployed to Beirut on a mission of peace, [12:59] but on the morning of October 23rd, 1983, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, terrorists all, by the way, terrorists [13:09] all, detonated a truck packed with explosives at the Marine barracks with hundreds of Americans [13:16] inside. Dale's first memory is waking up in a hospital bed and his catastrophic head injuries [13:25] and wounds, a collapsed lung, a broken back, torn up legs, ruptured ear, eardrums, and horrific burns [13:33] across his entire body and all over his face. He was the sole survivor of the men around him. And he [13:42] joins us here to remember the 241 American service members murdered in the Beirut barracks bombing, [13:50] the deadliest day for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima. Dale, please stand up. Thank you. [14:19] You look good, Dale. He looks good. Handsome guy. What's going on here? [14:24] Thank you very much. That was a terrible time. America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has [14:34] been waging war in America since 1979. This should have been taken care of a long time ago. [14:39] Under this administration, thank you. Under this administration, and it was about time, [14:51] somebody fought back. All of us fought back. We fought back. And we seriously fought back. And we [14:56] won. It's just a question of wouldn't we want to end it. We want to make sure we have a total victory, [15:01] not a 93 percent victory. It's going to be total. It'll take them 25 years to rebuild back what we [15:08] have destroyed. And hopefully we won't have to destroy any more of that country. We've got a lot [15:13] of work to do to put it back. U.S. involvement in the Korean War lasted four years and we lost 36,500 [15:23] great people. The Vietnam War lasted 21 years and we lost 60,000 people. Iraq went on for eight years [15:36] and we lost more than 4,400 people. Afghanistan was almost 20 years and we lost 2,500 service members [15:47] and got very little from any of these wars. In our case, we had Venezuela where we're taking out [15:57] billions and billions of dollars of oil and all sorts of other things. Be hundreds of billions very soon. [16:06] Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And we paid for the cost of the war many, many times over [16:15] already. Nobody has ever even envisioned that. To the victor belong the spoils, they used to say. [16:23] But you can say it again with us under this leadership. And Iran, where we stopped them from [16:29] having a nuclear weapon to beat two bombers, they took them out. We began operations against Iran [16:37] seven months ago, of which only a few weeks were active, hard fighting. We lost 18 beautiful souls. [16:48] But when this conflict is over and it will be soon, the entire world will be a much safer and better [16:53] place, more peaceful place and a place without the kind of danger that we had to suffer. Because the [17:04] bravery and skill of our amazing American warriors has absolutely been incredible. So in the case of [17:13] Venezuela, we have millions of barrels of oil coming out on a weekly basis and billions and billions of [17:23] dollars. And China left when I called them, got to leave. And Russia left when I called them. They [17:31] were all nibbling at the edges, said, you got to leave. They left. But we didn't leave. But when the [17:40] battle ends, our commitment to those who serve is only just beginning. It's only just beginning. It's [17:48] going to go on forever. Things that you would never even think about. But we have to be strong. We have [17:53] to be brave. And we have to be respected like we are right now. We've never been any more respected. [17:58] I would say we are right now more respected than this country has ever been before. And if you go [18:04] back two years ago, it wasn't pretty. The world was laughing at us. But that's all why I'm very proud [18:11] to have done more to improve care for American veterans than any president in modern history, to [18:19] ensure our veterans get the treatment they have earned. I passed the VA choice and the VA accountability, [18:27] two of the most important things ever passed. Nobody thought they could be passed. But we got [18:34] it done. In less than two years, we have cut the VA claims backlog by 71 percent. I signed the VA home [18:42] loan reform act so that no veteran loses their home to foreclosure. The banks are not happy about that. [18:50] But we are happy and the veterans are happy. That's all that matters. And we've secured housing for nearly [19:00] 100,000 homeless veterans who were not properly taken care of in the last administration. [19:07] And we're committed to ending the veterans' homelessness. I mean, it was a plague, a horrible [19:18] plague. We're working very hard on it. And we're getting the numbers down by percentages that nobody [19:24] thought were even possible to think about. We're doing a real job. And Doug Collins has been fantastic, [19:30] I will tell you. America's veterans have always fulfilled their duty to us. And while I'm president [19:36] of the United States, we will always fulfill our duty to them. From the Patriots first stand at [19:45] Lexington Green and the Concord Bridge to the blood-soaked battlefields that saved our nation from the [19:51] treacherous trenches of Europe to the deepest waters of the Pacific and the farthest reaches of the world, [19:58] our veterans have answered every call, met every threat, crushed every foe, and borne every burden [20:05] of war so that our children might know every single blessing of peace and love. And soon we're going to [20:15] dedicate a magnificent, triumphal arc to our veterans. And that's in honor of our great veterans [20:21] and our great militaries. They've been waiting for it for 200 years. Each day at Arlington Cemetery, [20:28] sometimes as often as 30 times a day, a bugler plays the sound of taps over a new grave of an American [20:39] veteran. In those 24 notes, there is sadness, there is pain, but there is always pride, pride in our nation, [20:47] pride in our flag. And there's never any doubt, no doubt that our heroes served a noble cause, [20:55] no doubt that they gave themselves to a righteous mission, no doubt that they had victories and won. [21:04] They just won, won, won. That's what they want to do. That's what they know how to do. That's all they know how to do. [21:09] The freedoms they preserved and the legacy that they secured have outlived them in so many cases, [21:17] but they're looking down on us right now. And with God's help, we will do things that we've never been [21:25] able to do before. Our country is becoming a far greater country than it's ever been before. [21:31] So today as one people, we say to every American veteran, the sacrifice you have made, [21:40] we will never forget the oath that you have kept. We will never take for granted. [21:45] The values you fought for will never, we will never, ever forsake. The flag you held high, [21:54] we will never let it fall. And the nation you served, we will never, ever let it fail. [22:03] I just want to thank everybody for being here. You're an amazing group of people, heroes all, [22:08] the families, the soldiers, the warriors, you're heroes all, and it's an honor to be your president. [22:14] This is really an amazing time in our country's history. We're doing things that nobody ever [22:20] thought possible. And yes, we'll have some minor setbacks. We'll handle them very nicely, [22:25] but our country has never done like it's done right now, like it's doing right now. [22:30] May God bless America's great veterans. May God bless our military and may God bless the United [22:37] States of America. Thank you very much, everybody. [22:39] Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you at the end of that clip because this is where I get to [22:47] tell you about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on MSNOW on your [22:53] phone or your tablet or your laptop. 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