Biden honors troops’ sacrifice on Memorial Day

President Joe Biden honored U.S. troops who died fighting for their country, marking Memorial Day with the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, and he is making remarks to pay tribute to the fallen.

He was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, for the 155th National Memorial Day Observance. The president stood for a moment of contemplation before the wreath and bowed his head in prayer.

The holiday honoring America’s fallen service members came a day after Mr. Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached final agreement on a deal that would raise America’s debt limit and that now awaits approval by Congress.

The president has taken pride in the fact that his administration has overseen a time of relative peace for the U.S. military after two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s been nearly 21 months since Biden ended the nation’s longest war in Afghanistan, making good on a campaign promise to end a 20-year-old “forever war” that cost the lives of more than 2,400 U.S. service members.

The war in Afghanistan, however, ended in deadly and chaotic fashion on Mr. 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.

The Biden administration last month released a review of the last days of the war, largely blaming his Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, and asserting that Mr. Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.

The U.S. now finds itself leading a coalition of allies pouring tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid into Ukraine as it tries to repel the Russian invasion, which does not appear to have no end in sight.

Mr. Biden has said he has no desire for U.S. troops to enter the conflict but maintains that the Russian effort to grab territory is an affront to international norms, and he has vowed to help Kyiv win, sending artillery, tanks and drones and recently agreeing to allow allies to train Ukrainian military on American F-16 jets.

Before Monday’s ceremony at the Arlington, Virginia, cemetery, the Bidens hosted a breakfast at the White House for members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen U.S. troops, senior Department of Defense officials and other administration officials.

The president and the first lady were scheduled to return their home near Wilmington, Delaware, later Monday to spend the rest of the federal holiday.