Biden Rallies U.S. Troops in Poland: ‘We Are At An Inflection Point’ in The Battle Between Democracy and Autocracy

President Joe Biden addressed U.S. troops stationed near the Polish-Ukrainian border on Friday. The president was in Rzeszow, the largest city in southeastern Poland, to get an on-the-ground look at the refugee crisis created by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Biden visited with members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and was introduced by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to give some brief remarks.

“Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Don’t jump. You guys are used to jumping. Don’t jump,” Biden started off, repeating one of his favorite jokes.

“A couple of things. First of all, thank you,” the president said. “You represent 1% of the American people. None of you have to be here. You all decided to be here for your country,” Biden continued.

“Every one of you volunteered, every single one of you stepped up, and the 99% of the rest of the country, including me, owes you and owes you big,” Biden said before extolling American exceptionalism:

Number two, you know, we’re a unique country in many ways. And we are the only country, the only country in the world not organized based on geography, ethnicity, race or anything else. We’re based on an idea: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all women and men are created equal.’

Sounds corny, it’s the truth of who we are. We have never lived up to it but never walked away from it. The rest of the world looks to us because you know we not only lead by example of our power, but by the power of our example. Your generation combines both.

“The rest of the world looks at you and sees who you are and they see you are a multi-ethnic group of Americans that are in fact together and united in one resolve, to defend your country and to help those who need help. That’s why you are here,” Biden continued before explaining his long history of dealing with Ukraine during his decades of service.

“And so, you know, the Ukrainian people have a lot of backbone. They have a lot of guts and I’m sure you are observing it. I don’t mean just military, which we’ve been training since back when Russia moved in to — in the southeast Ukraine. But also the average citizen. Look how they are stepping up. Look how they are stepping up,” Biden said.

“And you are going to see when you are there, some of you have been there, you will see women, young people standing in the middle in the front of a damn tank just I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground. They’re incredible,” he continued.

“But they take a lot of inspiration from us and you know, the woman who just died the secretary of state said, ‘we are the essential nation,’” Biden said quoting Madeleine Albright, who passed away this week. “It sounds like a bit of hyperbole. You are the organizing principle around which the rest of the world, the free world, is moving.”

“We’re in the midst of, and I don’t want to sound too philosophical but you are in the midst of a fight between democracies and oligarchs,” Biden argued. “Xi Jinping, who I have spent more with, they tell me, than any other world leader, points out to me he believes in China democracies can’t succeed in the 21st century.”

“Change is happening so quickly that democracies require consensus and we can’t put together consensus as quickly as autocrats can,” Biden said of President Xi’s rationale that democracies can’t survive.

“What is at stake not only in Ukraine to help the Ukrainian people and keep the massacre from continuing but beyond that what’s at stake is what are your kids and grandkids going to look like in terms of their freedom?” Biden continued, laying out what he sees as the greater geopolitical implications:

What’s happening? Last 10 years fewer democracies have been formed than we’ve lost in the world. So this is — what you are engaged in is just much more than whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine. We’re in a new phase. Your generation, we’re at an inflection point. Every four or five generations comes along fundamental change that takes place. The world won’t be the same not because of Ukraine but it won’t be the same 10, 15 years from now in terms of our organizational structures. The question is, who is going to prevail?

Are democracies going to prevail and the values we share or are autocracies going to prevail? What you are doing is really consequential.

“You are the finest fighting force in the world. Let me say it again, the finest fighting force in the history of the world. Part of the reason is you have had to fight so much for the last 20 years, it’s for real. Not many generations, the greatest generation was my father’s generation, your grandparents’ generation, World War II generation,” Biden told the troops.

“No other generation has had to be in a battle, have your buddy blown up, wiped the blood off the humvee, get back in and saddle up and go for another six months,” he added.

Biden went on to recall his visits to Iraq and Afghanistan while both countries were combat zones and noted how many of the soldiers he spoke to were on their third or fourth tours.

“My son spent a year in Iraq and spent six months in Kosovo. Won the bronze star and other awards. Proudest thing he did was put that uniform on. Like many of you, he didn’t have to go, either. He was the attorney general of the state of Delaware and the Delaware National Guard,” Biden said of his late son Beau Biden.

“The point is, there were hundreds of thousands of people like my son, like all of you. So thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“It’s not only what you are doing to help the Ukrainian people, it is not only what you are doing to help Europe regain its confidence, the reason why when the general — secretary of state asked if I would send 12,000 troops from the United States I said yeah, we have 100,000 American forces here in Europe. We haven’t had that in a long, long time,” Biden explained of the current situation in Europe.

“Because we are the organizing principle for the rest of the world. As I said, we sent the best. The best available in America. That’s all of you women and men. I came for one simple basic reason, not a joke. To say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your service. Thank you for you who are. And thank you for what you are doing,” he continued.

“And as my grandfather would say every time I walked out of his house he would yell Joey, keep the faith. My grandmother would yell all kidding aside, she would yell no, spread it. You are spreading the faith. Thank you, thank you, thank you. May God bless you all and keep you safe,” the president concluded.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News