Clinton Honors Armed Forces, Defends Global Military Role
President Clinton, honoring the men and women who died in military service, defended on Saturday America’s global military role, saying it “is making our people safer and the world more secure.”
As the Memorial Day weekend began, Clinton devoted his weekly radio address to honoring members of the U.S. armed forces.
“Today the men and women of America’s armed forces are the best trained, best equipped, best prepared in the world and I am determined to keep them that way,” he said from the Oval Office in the White House. “This is the surest guarantee of our security and our freedom.”
Despite the end of the Cold War, the president said America’s soldiers, airmen and sailors continue to play an essential role and “are the backbone of the American leadership that is the source of strength at home and our success around the world.”
“Whether preventing conflict in the Persian Gulf, reducing the nuclear threat as we have done in North Korea, working with other nations to fight common dangers like terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, strengthening our alliances in Asia and Europe, or isolating rogue nations like Libya and Iraq, steady strong American leadership is making our people safer and the world more secure,” said Clinton.
The president will formally mark Memorial Day on Monday at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.