President Bush, delivering a Memorial Day message surrounded by the graves of thousands of military dead, said Monday that the United States must continue the war on terrorism in the name of those who have given their lives in the cause, reports the DenverPost.com.



“The best way to pay respect is to value why a sacrifice was made,” Bush said, quoting from a letter that Lt. Mark Dooley wrote to his parents before being killed in September in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Noting that about 270 men and women of the nearly 2,500 who have fallen since the 2001 terrorist attacks are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Bush said, “We have seen the costs in the war on terror that we fight today.’



“I am in awe of the men and women who sacrifice for the freedom of the United States of America,” the president said, drawing a standing ovation from the troops, families of the fallen and others gathered at the cemetery’s 5,000- seat white marble amphitheater.



“Here in the presence of veterans they fought with and loved ones whose pictures they carried, the fallen give silent witness to the price of liberty, and our nation honors them this day and every day,” he said.



The nation can best honor the dead by “defeating the terrorists ... and by laying the foundation for a generation of peace,” Bush said.