President Biden observes the 80th anniversary of D-Day:
America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today.
We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force — these are perennial. And the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending.
Here, in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination.
Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses, but never backing down.
They’ve inflicted on the Russian aggressors — they’ve suffered tremendous losses, Russia. The numbers are staggering — 350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded. Nearly 1 million people have left Russia because they can no longer see a future in Russia.
The United States and NATO and a coalition of more than 50 countries standing strong with Ukraine. We will not walk away — (applause) — because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated.
And it will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened.
And make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked. We cannot let that happen.
To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.
Make no mistake: We will not bow down. We will not forget.