2006 Speeches
Remarks By Charge d’Affaires Christopher W. Murray at Memorial Ceremony for Embassy Bombings
April 18, 2006
It is a great honor to welcome our Embassy community here today. I’m pleased that we have representatives from all of the groups we consider part of our Embassy family. Thank you to our Lebanese staff – both current and former employees – for being here.
I am pleased that we have reached out, not just to our retirees, but also to others who have worked at the Embassy for part of their professional lives. We are hoping to expand our outreach to include others like you in future annual community gatherings; and please let us know whom else we need to include.
We are, of course, grateful for the presence of the families of our colleagues who gave their lives in the service of the United States, as a tragic consequence of the terrible terrorist attacks we commemorate today. We are honored that you maintain your connection with us, despite the tragedy that befell your family. You are very special members of our community. And while our relationship was forged in tragedy, it is today sustained with deep gratitude and sincere affection.
I welcome, also, our American colleagues. I know I speak for all of us in saying how privileged we are to work in Lebanon at this unique moment in the history of the Lebanese people.
Ambassador Feltman is in Washington D.C. to assist with the visit of Prime Minister Fouad Sinoria and members of his cabinet. In a few hours from now, President Bush will host, at the White House, a luncheon for the Prime Minister. This meeting is significant. The attention that Prime Minister Sinoria is receiving in Washington underscores the importance that the United States accords to its relationship with Lebanon. More importantly, the high-level welcome of Prime Minister Siniora demonstrates the enduring, long term and non-negotiable commitment of the United States to Lebanon and to the Lebanese people.
It is also significant that on the same day that President Bush is receiving Prime Minister Sinoria at the White House, we are gathered here today, in Beirut, to remember a darker period in the history of our two countries.
Today, as we do each year on April 18th, we remember our colleagues, relatives and friends who lost their lives in the Embassy bombings of April 18, 1983, and September 20, 1984, during the terrible years of war and strife that tore the fabric of Lebanese society. We remember those also whose lives were touched by the heinous attack on the U.S. Marine Barracks, on October 23, 1983, that cut short so many young American lives.
We remember our colleagues and recognize their tremendous sacrifice in the service of the United States of America. We mourn and recognize the terrible void they left in the lives of their families and friends, and in our Embassy community.
For some of our Embassy family gathered here today, the names engraved in this stone memorial have very special meaning for they include the names of their fathers, their husbands, their closest relatives. Coming to work each day is a testament to a loved one lost. Their dedication to work at our Embassy honors their family name. We are humbled by their strength in the face of such loss; and we are grateful for their loyalty and resolve.
We recognize and offer support to those in our Embassy family who lived through one or more of the violent attacks on our facilities. We recognize also those of our colleagues who were injured in these terrible attacks, and for whom this day of remembrance carries special meaning and pain.
Those of our community who departed us so tragically left unfilled places in our families and in our community. And as we stand in front of this beautiful memorial, whose flowers and plants symbolize regeneration and the continuity of life, it is appropriate to acknowledge the sadness and pain in our loss.
I’d like to offer a moment of silence, now, for those whose lives were lost in Lebanon in the service of the United States.
[MOMENT OF SILENCE]
Today’s ceremony remembers those of our community who left us so tragically. But it is also intended to renew the ties between colleagues and to re-affirm the importance of our Lebanese American community in working to achieve common goals. Thus, as we commemorate today tragic events in Lebanon’s past, we also celebrate our long-standing partnership that is leading to a better future.
Lebanon and the United States share a partnership between peoples of two sovereign, independent nations, each with diverse populations and democratic traditions. Together, the people of Lebanon and the United States can take pride in a relationship that aims at securing a secure and prosperous future for both countries and for both peoples. And all of us gathered here today can feel pride that our work is at the forefront of what Secretary Rice calls “transformational diplomacy.”
I’ve heard Ambassador Feltman tell you, and tell our colleagues at the Department of State in Washington, how much he values the unique partnership and commitment to community that exists between the Lebanese and the Americans who work together at the U.S. Embassy. In many ways, our community is a model for Lebanon. On this small 16-acre plot of land in Awkar, a diverse group of Americans work hand-in-hand with Lebanese of comparable confessional and political diversity, from every corner of this beautiful country.
As we work together each day, one thing is evident: at the U.S. Embassy, differences in political outlook, in religious tradition or in family background, are never divisive. Instead, diversity is our community’s strength. Our varied points of view and political outlook, the ways in which we worship God, and how we represent the corners of the country we call home, help us work more effectively. Our community’s diversity ensures that we understand Lebanon better and can represent and assist Lebanon’s people more effectively.
What we do every day at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar can be a model for how people can work together to achieve their goals. All those of us who work here know the strong bonds of friendship among us.
Two e-mails that were forwarded to me from the Pubilc Affairs Section illustrate the loyalty and attachment of both Americans and Lebanese to Lebanon, and to the colleagues with whom they worked:
One of the e-mails began, “My name is Ed Lamica.” I was…part of the multi-national peacekeeping forces in Lebanon… After the April 18, 1983 attack, I was directed to fly my helo above the Embassy to photograph it. Thank you folks at the Embassy for the ceremony. The families and those of us who served are grateful that you do this each year. The first duty of all Americans should be to remember. Because if we do not stop to reflect on the past, we are bound to repeat it.”
Mr. Lamica, now retired from the Navy, asked that we place a wreath for him, saying: “I want to honor those I served with.”
And another email:
To Ambassador Feltman from Fady Hadad, who worked from 1984-1987 as a supply clerk. “I was working in the basement when it was bombed,” he said. “I was very lucky to survive.”
When President Bush, in a speech in Brussels, called for the immediate withdrawal of the Syrians from Lebanon, Fady was present. “I applauded for a long time; it was a great day,” he said.
These messages amplify the message of today’s ceremony: That despite a past with tragedy and darkness, the U.S.-Lebanon relationship is enduring and long-lasting, leading to a future with peace, stability, prosperity and hope.
Despite terrible sacrifices in the past—and even in the past year—the firm partnership between our two peoples will ensure that freedom and democracy prevail. Lebanon remains at the top of President Bush’s Freedom Agenda. The United States and the American people stand with Lebanon and the Lebanese people today, tomorrow and in the future, to build and support a secure, sovereign, democratic, united and prosperous Lebanon.
Thank you all for being with us to day, to remember our colleagues, to re-affirm our friendship and to re-commit ourselves to shared goals that ensure a brighter future for us all.
