AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Defense Secretary Gates told graduating Air Force Academy cadets yesterday that the world will be watching as they fight the war on terror.

Mistakes made on the battlefield against “enemies who possess no conscience and no remorse” will be magnified and transmitted globally in this Internet age, Mr. Gates warned the 977 members of the 49th academy class on a brisk, windy day beneath snowcapped Pikes Peak.

“We live in an age when friends and enemies alike will seek out and focus on any and all mistakes made under great stress,” he declared. “When you are called to lead, when you are called to stand in defense of your country in faraway lands, you must hold your values and your honor close to your heart.”

Mr. Gates said leaders must do what is right, even when it will bring bad publicity or sacrifice personal friendships.

“Don’t kid yourselves: More often than not, doing this means traveling a lonely and difficult road,” he said.

In highly publicized incidents, some U.S. forces have been accused of mistreating or wrongly killing insurgents or civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, including torture and humiliation of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Several U.S. Marines are accused of killing 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq. A recent survey found that 39% of Marines said torture should be allowed to gather information from an insurgent.

Against that backdrop, Mr. Gates commended Congress and the press as “the two pillars of our freedom under the Constitution.”

He made similar remarks last week at the U.S. Naval Academy’s commencement, when he told new naval officers they have the responsibility to inform people under their command that the military “must be nonpolitical” and to truthfully report to Congress, “especially when it involves admitting mistakes or problems.”

Mr. Gates noted that yesterday’s graduating class was one of the first to enter the academy after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“You knew the dangers of the world you were entering, but you still chose to step forward,” he declared.

“It is by no means an easy future. We are engaged in two wars on the other side of the world and we are engaged in a global ideological struggle against some of the most barbaric enemies we have ever faced,” he said.

About 23,000 people attended the graduation yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said.

Mr. Gates was flying to Hawaii for meetings today at U.S Pacific Command headquarters. Tomorrow, he is scheduled to arrive in Singapore to attend an international conference on Asian security and meet separately with his counterparts from South Korea and other allied nations.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gates will discuss China’s military buildup with defense ministers and top military from more than 20 countries at a regional security conference in Singapore this weekend.

Mr. Gates will deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-la Dialogue from June 1–3, and meet a number of his counterparts, one week after the Pentagon released its annual report on China, saying the communist nation was acquiring sophisticated weapons technology, calling for an explanation.

The U.S. has repeatedly expressed concern over China’s military modernization in recent years. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld publicly confronted Chinese officials over the issue in 2005, saying: “Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder, why this growing investment?” China’s foreign ministry said May 28 that the latest report exaggerates its military strength and repeated it’s not a threat.

China said in March its defense spending will rise nearly 18% to around $45 billion in 2007. The Pentagon, in its report last week, said spending was probably two to three times higher than that. China and India’s defense policies will be discussed Saturday following Mr. Gates’s speech, according to a preliminary conference schedule.