Global Courant 2023-05-29 21:33:48
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden praised the sacrifice of generations of American troops who died fighting for their country as he marked Memorial Day with the traditional laying of wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery.
Biden was joined by First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff for the 155th National Memorial Day Observance. He had a moment of contemplation before the wreath, which was decorated with flowers and a red, white, and blue bow, and then bowed his head in prayer.
“We must never forget the price paid to protect our democracy,” Biden later said in a speech at the Memorial Amphitheater. “We must never forget the lives these flags, flowers and marble markers represent.”
“Every year we remember,” he said. “And every year it never gets easier.”
In honor of Monday’s federal holiday America’s fallen soldiers came a day after Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a final agreement on a deal that would increase the US debt limit and is now awaiting Congressional approval.
As it stands, the agreement would be keep non-defense spending about the same in fiscal year 2024 and increase it by 1% the following year. The measure would allow defense growth of 3% in fiscal 2024, to $886 billion, and then another 1% in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.
Biden is proud that his Democratic administration has overseen a time of relative peace for the US military after two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It’s been nearly 21 months since Biden ended the United States’ longest war in Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise. a 20-year “forever war” which took his life more than 2,400 US military personnel.
However, the war in Afghanistan ended in deadly and chaotic fashion under Biden’s watch in August 2021, with critics criticizing the administration’s handling of the evacuation of some 120,000 US citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and poorly executed.
The Biden administration was released last month a review of the war’s final days, largely blaming his Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, and claiming that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.
The US now leads a coalition of allies pouring tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid into Ukraine as it tries to the Russian invasionwhich seems to have no end.
While making it clear that he has no need for US troops to enter the conflict, Biden has maintained that he sees Russia’s attempt to seize territory as an affront to international standards and has vowed to help Kiev win, through artillery, tanks and drones and recently agreed to allow allies Ukrainian army training on US F-16 jets.
Prior to the ceremony at the cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, the Bidens hosted a White House breakfast for members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen U.S. troops, senior Defense Department officials and other government officials.
The president and first lady would return to their home near Wilmington, Delaware, later Monday to spend the remainder of the federal holiday.
