By Xinhua,
Washington : The United States marked on Monday the annual Memorial Day as politicians and public paid tribute to the country’s troops who died in battles.
President George W. Bush appeared at a national cemetery in Arlington, Virginia accompanied by his wife, Laura, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, saying national leaders must have “the courage and character to follow their lead” in preserving peace and freedom.
“On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am,” he told an audience of thousands of people, including military figures, veterans and their families.
Prior to the speech, he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns that contains the remains of unidentified U.S. soldiers from World Wars I and II, and the Korean War.
The president urged all Americans to remember the sacrifices of Veterans and their families, who he described as “an awesome bunch of people,” by pausing on the Memorial Day holiday for “a moment of remembrance.”
Democrats, on the other hand, called for better benefit provided for veterans as the best way to honor their sacrifice to the nation.
“If our veterans want to go to college, they should be able to do so the minute their boots hit the ground,” said John Boccieri, a congressional candidate from Ohio and Air Force Reserve pilot in Iraq, in the Democrats’ weekly radio.
The Democratic-led Senate on Thursday passed a measure attached to the war funding bill to increase benefits for veterans, despite Bush administration’s threat to veto it.
A stream of salutes and memorial activities were also scheduled across the nation, including a parade by marching bands and veterans units from all over the country in the capital of District of Columbia.
The Memorial day in the election year is also taken as a stage for presidential candidates to campaign.
On Monday, Democratic contestant Barack Obama held a town hall meeting with veterans in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where his Republican rival, John McCain, also appeared at a memorial for veterans.
The two senators both promised to do more to expand veterans’ medical care and education benefits despite their striking difference in the Iraq war.
“As president, I will do everything in my power to ensure that those who serve today and those who have served in the past have access to the highest quality health, mental health and rehabilitative care in the world,” McCain, a Vietnam war hero and former prisoner of war, said at Memorial Day event in Albuquerque.
Obama said at a graduation ceremony at Wesleyan University on Sunday that he believes the two parties could be unified in service to a greater good, although “we may disagree as Americans on certain issues and positions.”
However, the Memorial Day also marked rise of U.S. troops casualty in Iraq, after two soldiers were killed and four wounded in two separate roadside bombings in the country earlier on Monday, according to the military.
The latest deaths raised to 4,082 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.