WASHINGTON - President Obama on Monday commemorated the first Memorial Day since troops were finally withdrawn from Iraq last year by remembering some of the more than 4,000 American troops who died in the conflict and promising to continue to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama first laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and then delivered a speech in which he named the first and last troops who died in Iraq.

"For the first time in nine years, Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq. We are winding down the war in Afghanistan, and our troops will continue to come home," he said. "After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon."

The president said the country must remember the debts it owes the veterans who survived, and the families of those who died, and promised only to go to war in the future when he can "give our troops a clear mission and the full support of a grateful nation." Later in the day, he was scheduled to deliver a speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of American involvement in the conflict there.

Mr. Obama's speech at Arlington served as a capstone on Iraq, which saw the final American troops pulled out late last year under the terms of an agreement then-President George W. Bush signed in 2008. The war has played a prominent part in the Memorial Day celebrations of the last decade, with Mr. Bush using his 2003 address at Arlington, soon after the conflict began, to commemorate the first of the fallen, who were buried in the cemetery's Section 60. (AP)