Give legacy closer look

The News Virginian
Published: October 30, 2008

History, mobile and under revision, is scheduled today to roll into the River City. A growling 28 tons of biodiesel-fueled rage against the Republican machine, the Bush Legacy Tour bus arrives at noon at Waynesboro Democratic Headquarters in Willow Oak Plaza. Supporters of the war in Iraq and the president tour at their sensibilities’ peril.

Americans United for Change, the Washington-based tour organizers, refers, popularly, to the bus as a museum on wheels. Museum being defined by Merriam-Webster as “a place where objects are exhibited,” the term fits, but objects in the Bush Legacy Tour are unrelated to objectivity. The bus features interactive exhibits delineating the costs, monetary and tragic, of war in Iraq. Aided by a writhing economy, it also explains how conservative policies have pushed America to the brink.

It is the former topic that interests David Bellavia, of New York. The author of “House to House,” a war memoir that is among the most stirring to emerge from Iraq and a decorated veteran of the First Battle of Fallujah, Bellavia was little interested in politics until he came home to discover that ex-Marine John Murtha, the Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, had decided to give peace a chance while giving none to fighting men accused – wrongly, it was later revealed – of war crimes.

“I could not understand how the left could absolutely sully the honorable memory of the warriors who fought there,” Bellavia told The News Virginian, “how they could have no idea of why we fight.” To provide answers, Bellavia helped form Vets for Freedom, a Washington-based advocacy group. This eventually led him to the Bush Legacy bus, parked and idling outside the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

What the former staff sergeant saw there astounded him. “They had boots and dog tags and pictures of bloated corpses floating around from New Orleans,” after Hurricane Katrina, Bellavia said. “I thought it was disrespectful.” Bellavia asked a young tour guide if the traveling museum would include an addition marking the success of the surge. “They had no idea what they were talking about,” Bellavia said.

For soldiers such as Bellavia, the Bush Legacy bus represents an assault on those who have spilled blood to ensure that insurgents are confronted in Iraq’s streets rather than America’s. He knows part of that sacrifice is aimed at preserving the rights of others to protest what they sometimes do not understand. “We can have opinions, let’s all talk,” Bellavia said. “But you have to be really super-careful when you’re talking about people fighting for our country.”

Thoughtful examination of Bush’s wisdom in invading Iraq is warranted, and a decidedly American activity. Soldiers such as Bellavia are trained to carry out the orders of commanders-in-chief without flinching. Those whom they protect possess the rights the military safeguards, including that of protest.

Bellavia has another point that the Bush Legacy propagandists have missed. The military’s accomplishments in Iraq have been extraordinary. U.S. forces, operating under brilliant leadership absent during the early years of the campaign, have helped to transform a country brought to the brink of civil war into one on the verge of standing miraculously on its own.

This element of the Bush legacy will be invisible today to those who limit their gaze to the narrow confines of a 45-foot long propaganda machine. Those who seek a fuller understanding will need to look considerably further.