WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — President Joe Biden told the U.S. Military Academy’s graduating class on Saturday that their class is called to confront threats around the world and defend the country’s ideals at home “more than ever before.”
Biden said the phrase, their class motto, was a perfect fit for the range of challenges they will tackle as new Army lieutenants, from helping defend Ukraine against Russian aggression to facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza and defending Israel from Iranian attack.
“There’s never been a time in history when we’ve called on our military to do so many different things at the same time, in so many different places around the world,” Biden said.
Speaking at a sun-drenched West Point, Biden reiterated that he would not authorize the deployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine’s battlefields but said U.S. military efforts to equip and train the Ukrainian military “strengthened and thwarted” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brazen vision” for Europe. Biden praised U.S. troops for helping Israel repel a massive Iranian drone and ballistic missile attack last month and for trying to de-escalate the conflict.
Speaking before the graduating cadets took the oath of commission, Biden reminded them that their allegiance is to the Constitution, not to any person or party. “Hold fast to the values you learned at West Point,” Biden said, as other speakers noted the partisan rancor and political division across the country.
“We need champions to make ideas a reality,” Biden said. “And that’s your mission. Now more than ever, we need to keep us free.”
Biden noted that rates of sexual assault and harassment in the military fell to the first time in a decade last year, and while it “has always been there,” more needs to be done.
Biden stood with each graduate for more than an hour, saluting and shaking their hand, and, as is customary, excused the cadets for minor infractions they committed while at the military academy, adding with a laugh that “the president can be clear about what minor means.”
