As he observed Memorial Day with the customary wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, US President Joe Biden praised the sacrifice of generations of US soldiers who died fighting for their nation.
For the 155th National Memorial Day Observance, Biden was accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff.
President Biden honored service troops and veterans in his Memorial Day speech and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
Biden noted in his address, “Our service members have always embodied the highest expectations of our democracy.”
“Once again stand amid the rows and rows of stones that bear witness to the brave women and men who served and sacrificed for our freedom and for our future, those who died so that our nation might live.”
U.S President, Joe Biden.
Biden also paid his respects to the families that lost loved ones on the battlefield. He said, “We must never forget the price that was paid to protect our democracy. We must never forget the lives these flags, flowers and marble markers represent.”
Every year we remember and every year it never gets easier,” Biden added.
The official holiday remembering America’s dead servicemen and women was observed on Monday, May 29, 2023, a day after Biden and Republican House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy struck a final agreement on a plan to extend the country’s debt ceiling and which is currently awaiting congressional approval.
According to the agreement’s current language, nondefense spending would remain essentially unchanged in the 2024 fiscal year and rise by 1% the following year. According to the proposal, defense spending may increase by 3% in fiscal 2024, to $886 billion, and by another 1% in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.
The Bidens hosted a breakfast at the White House for representatives of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of dead American service members, senior Department of Defense officials and other administration officials on Monday before the ceremony at the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.
The President and the First Lady were scheduled to return to their home near Wilmington, Delaware, later Monday to spend the rest of the federal holiday.
Almost 21 Months Since End Of The U.S War In Afghanistan
It has been nearly 21 months since Biden ended the United States’ longest war in Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise to end a 20-year-old “forever war” that cost the lives of more than 2400 U.S. service members.
The war in Afghanistan, however, ended in deadly and chaotic fashion on Biden’s watch in August 2021 with critics blasting the administration’s handling of the evacuation of some 120,000 American citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and badly executed.
In a review of the final days of the war published last month, the Biden administration mostly blamed his Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, and claimed that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.
After two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Biden has taken pride in the fact that his Democratic government has presided over a period of relative calm for the American military.
The U.S. is now in charge of a coalition of partners providing Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid as it tries to fend off the Russian invasion, which doesn’t seem to be coming to an end.
Biden has made it clear that he does not want U.S troops to take part in the conflict but has insisted that he views Russia’s attempt to seize territory as a violation of international law.
He has pledged to support Kyiv in its fight for victory by sending artillery, tanks, and drones as well as most recently allowing allies to train the Ukrainian military on American F-16 fighter jets.
