Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 22
Joe Biden has called newly graduating US military officers the “guardians of American democracy” at a commencement speech in New York state, where the US president, without mentioning Donald Trump by name, gave strong warnings of unprecedented threats to US freedom.
Biden told the West Point military academy graduating class of 2024 that it is being called upon to tackle threats across the globe as well as preserve America’s ideals at home.
The president, speaking in front of about 1,000 graduating cadets at the US army training academy on Saturday, urged the newly minted officers to “hold fast” to their military oath “not to a political party, not to a president but to the constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
The president said that the US was founded on an idea of equality but that “ideas need defenders to make them real and that’s what you, the class of 2024, are all about. The defenders of freedom, champions of liberty, guardians – and I mean this – guardians of American democracy. You must keep us free at this time, like none before.”
The president reaffirmed that the US will continue “standing strong” with Ukraine in the face of a “brutal tyrant” in the form of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, although again reiterated no US troops will be sent to the conflict.
Biden said that the Nato alliance was “stronger than ever”, praised the US military for its efforts in erecting a pier “in record time” and delivering air drops to provide aid to Palestinians suffering amid Israel’s war in Gaza. In other parts of the globe, Biden said, the US was “standing up for peace and stability” regarding the threat posed by China to Taiwan. Biden is scheduled to participate in Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Monday and D-Day ceremonies in France a week later.
On Saturday, he made his first address at West Point as president, having twice addressed a graduating class of cadets when he was vice-president.
Source: The Guardian
