US President Barack Obama saluted soldiers returning from Iraq and said their service in that country offered a lesson in the character of the American nation.
"There's a reason our military is the most respected institution in America," Obama said in a Sunday address to the nation via radio and the Internet.
"Soldiers don't see themselves and others as Democrats or Republicans first. They see themselves as Americans first."
According to him, "regardless of all differences and disagreements (among Americans)", the soldiers are there to remind Americans that they are all "part of something bigger", that they are "one nation and one people".
Obama said his grandfather's generation returned from World War II "to form the backbone of the most expansive middle class in history."
The US president marked the end of the seven-year war in Iraq this week, meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ahead of the full US military withdrawal scheduled for December 31.
In the war, which began with the invasion of American troops and their Western allies, almost 4.500 Americans were killed and about 32.000 were wounded. The cost of that mission is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
As a senator, Obama opposed the war in Iraq, which became a key part of his 2008 presidential campaign.
According to him, the American nation should now include the returnees from the war in the reconstruction of the US economy.
Obama said his grandfather's generation returned from World War II "to form the backbone of the most expansive middle class in history."
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