Graduating cadets take part in the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy, located in West Point, New York State of the United States, May 27, 2017, with the U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis attending.

The U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday his country is committed to fighting terrorism, as "Americans are not made of cotton candy."

The retired four-star Marine general made the remarks while talking to the 936 graduating cadets at the football stadium of the U.S. Military Academy, located in West Point, aboutn 96 kilometers north of New York City on the Hudson River.

"Manchester's tragic loss underscores the purpose of your years of study and training at this elite school," Mattis said, referring to Monday's suicide bombing at a concert hall in Manchester, England, in which 22 people were killed. The so-called Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We must never permit murderers to define our time or warp our sense of normal. This is not normal," said Mattis, who became defense secretary on Jan. 20, hours after Republican President Donald Trump was sworn in.

"You will drive home a salient point," Mattis said. "That free men and women will volunteer to fight, ethically and fiercely, to defend our experiment that you and I call, simply, 'America.'"

"We Americans are not made of cotton candy. You are a U.S. soldier and you hold the line," he said to cheering and applause from the graduates.

"Our enemies are watching," he said. "By your commitment, you will prove the enemy wrong. Dead wrong."

The U.S. Military Academy, simply known as West Point, was founded in May 1802. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 4,348. Army graduates earn a Bachelor of Science degree and almost all of them are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.