WEST POINT – The 1,014 graduates of the West Point Class of 2022 were commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army on Saturday as Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley told them during commencement ceremonies that they are entering a world that is more unstable than it has been since World War II.
“Revolutionary change is going to occur while you are in service,” he told the graduates. “Right now, a fundamental change is happening in the great character of war,” he said, noting the U.S. is facing “two global powers, China and Russia, each with significant military capabilities and both who fully intend to change the current rules-based order.”
The chairman said America must continue to support Ukraine’s fight against tyranny.
“Yet again in Ukraine we are learning a lesson that aggression left unanswered only emboldens the aggressor. Let us never forget the massacre that we have just witnessed in Bucha nor the slaughter that occurred in Mariupol and the best way to honor their sacrifice is to support their fight for freedom and to stand against tyranny,” he said.
Milley said the “idea” of America is what makes it stand out in the world.
“Embedded in the documents that we call the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence is the idea, the idea that is America. And, this idea is simple, but it’s incredibly powerful. It’s so powerful that the Nazis were deathly afraid of it. We defeated Imperial Japan because of it. The Communists feared it, the Soviet Union collapsed because of it, the fascists in Italy and the terrorists of al Qaeda and Isis, they hate it. They hate this idea,” he said.
Milley told the graduates who join the Long Gray Line that the next 20 to 25 years will not look like the past as the battlefield and weapons change dramatically.
