LUMP IN THE THROAT SPEECH:

LUMP IN THE THROAT SPEECH: Posted on the SteelNavy.Com Message Board is a speech from the captain to the crew of the USS John F. Kennedy, shortly before the new-on-station aircraft carrier launched its first strikes into Afghanistan on Sunday.

“For us this is a culminating point in space, a culminating point in time, and a culminating point in history. “Our enemy is a group of religious fanatics, who pervert the peace of Islam and twist its meaning to justify the murder of thousands of innocents at the Twin Towers of New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania.

“They hate us and attack us because they oppose all that is good about America. They hate us because we are prosperous. They hate us because we are tolerant. They hate us because we are happy.

“Mostly, they hate us because we are free and because we will