Salaam-o-Alaikum.

It is my great honor to be with you for the Opening of this very important Conference.  For too long, the Afghan people have known suffering and conflict.  We have come here today to advance peace – through the Reintegration of Taliban fighters back into their communities. 

I believe very strongly that the time has come in Afghanistan for Reintegration, and, in particular, in Loya Kandahar.  You, at this Conference, with the full support of President Karzai, the High Peace Council and the Afghan Government, you will lead the way.  I have come here to listen, and I have listened well to your leaders this morning and before this meeting, and to learn, and to offer you my FULL support. 

I want you to know that Reintegration is one of my highest priorities.  I want you to be assured that the International Coalition will stand with you as partners and will provide the support necessary to advance Reintegration in this proud region of this great nation.   

My friends, the time for Peace and Reintegration is now. Together, the Afghan National Security Forces and ISAF have made great progress in Loya Kandahar, and, together – together – we are on the path to success. 

We know that we are on the path to success, because we have begun the process of Transition – wherein Afghans are assuming the lead responsibility for providing security, and Coalition forces are standing with them in support.  The Afghan National Security Force is still developing.  However, it is expanding and is an increasingly capable force, and it will assume responsibility for security in this country in 2014. 

Transition is happening because we are succeeding –pushing back the insurgents and building up the Afghan security forces.  This is the progress we seek.  We seek an Afghanistan that is for the Afghan people.  We seek an Afghanistan that is secure, peaceful, and hopeful.  We seek an Afghanistan in which the Afghan people control their destiny.

Some believe that Transition means that the International Community is abandoning Afghanistan. They calculate that they can wait out the Afghan National Security Forces and the International Coalition.  They are wrong. 

The Afghan National Security Force is only expanding in its size and its capabilities.  And the International Coalition will have a long-term and enduring relationship with the Afghan people.  We will stay with Afghanistan to ensure that the Afghan security forces are successful and the Afghan people are secure.  That is our commitment.   

We know that we are on the path to success in Afghanistan because we see the insurgents struggling.  They have been ripped them from their strongholds and we have them on their heels.  We see it in the territory that they have lost. 

And we see it in the increasing resentment of the people for this cause and the resentment of the Taliban foot soldiers who have of their leaders absent from the battlefield, safely away from the fight, issuing orders from the comfort of foreign lands. 

Let me now speak from the heart: The people of Afghanistan and Loya Kandahar have suffered too long. The time is now for change. This war has gone on too long. And there are many who fight you everyday, who desire to come back, who desire to rejoin their communities and their families. They are as tired of the war as you are, but they are losing, and will lose, and history will record that they will lose.

Their leaders tell them that we are leaving, and we will abandon Afghanistan, and that time is on their side. That story is a big lie. We will not abandon Afghanistan, and now is the time for peace. Every day, Afghanistan becomes stronger. Every day, the people of Afghanistan achieve greater progress.

The Taliban are about the past. You are about the future; and your future is about peace. Your future is about security. Now is the time for the Taliban foot soldier to come home and to join the future, and to be part of the progress.

Some will still want to fight. We will never convince them that peace is their future. To those, I tell you we will fight you. But to those who want to come home and be part of the future of Afghanistan, to join the brave people of Afghanistan for a brave future, we say “Now is the time.”

And I will support President Karzai, I will support the Loya Kandahar, I will support you, the people of Afghanistan, to make this happen.

I admire you for all that you have achieved, and I admire all that you will accomplishe. The future of Afghanistan and Loya Kandahar is bright. There is no place in that future for the darkness of the Taliban.

And I will end where I began: Now is the moment for peace. Now is the moment for the fighters to come home and join their communities. And, as the commander of the NATO forces, I will do all I can to support your leaders and support the Afghan National Security Forces in this effort.

I will wish God’s rich blessings on all of you, on your precious families, and on Afghanistan.

Tashakur, manana.