Obama pays tribute to fallen service members

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va.

President Barack Obama on Monday saluted Americans who died in battle, saying the country must “never stop trying to fully repay them” for their sacrifices. He noted it was the first Memorial Day in 14 years without U.S. forces engaged in a major ground war.

Speaking under sunny skies to some 5,000 people in an amphitheater on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, Obama said the graveyard is “more than a final resting place of heroes.”

“It is a reflection of America itself,” he said, citing racial and religious diversity in the backgrounds of the men and woman who paid the ultimate sacrifice to preserve “the ideals that bind us as one nation.”

His appearance is an annual rite for presidents at the cemetery nestled among verdant hills overlooking the Potomac River. It came months after the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, where the number of stationed troops has been reduced to about 10,000 from a peak of more than 100,000.

His tribute also took place against a backdrop of the increasingly complex U.S.-led effort to help Iraq defeat the Islamic State extremist group, which has been gaining momentum in recent weeks by capturing Ramadi there and taking Palmyra in neighboring Syria.

Obama made no mention of America’s participation with other nations in the effort to stop the Islamic State. His effort there has come under intensifying criticism since the fall of Ramadi with lawmakers calling for a bigger show of American force there, including ground troops.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and pledged full U.S. support for Iraqi efforts to reclaim territory from the Islamic State, including by speeding up the provision of U.S. training and equipment, the White House said.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter had said in a nationally broadcast interview aired Sunday that Iraqi forces “showed no will to fight” and fled as the Islamic State advanced on Ramadi. The White House said in a statement that Biden’s call “recognized the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces over the past 18 months in Ramadi and elsewhere.”