New GI Bill: Webb's Ribbon

During his 2006 campaign, Jim Webb stressed issues important to veterans. A Marine himself, he understands the challenges confronting the troops who fight America's wars. Many of the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced several deployments and have made multiple tours. From Iwo Jima to Normandy, all war is hell. The war against jihadism has peculiarities. The front-line soldiers follow in the footsteps not only of Chesty Puller but of James Madison. They simultaneously battle an armed enemy operating in the shadows and attempt to create governing institutions and restore civil societies in places battered by dictatorship and sectarian intolerance.

America honors its heroes.

Soon after his election to the Senate, Webb introduced legislation dubbed the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The original GI Bill stands as one of the nation's most successful pieces of legislation. It smoothed the nation's transition to peace after the trials of World War II, and it repaid the debt owed to those who defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Webb's measure translates into the most comprehensive reform of GI benefits since the 1944 act. Veterans covered by the bill will be able to receive a free undergraduate education at an in-state public institution. The bill offers benefits to family members, who in a very real sense serve as well.

Last year Congress passed Webb's bill; President George Bush signed it. This week the law went into effect. President Barack Obama attended a celebration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill at George Mason University with Sen. Webb and former Sen. John Warner among the prominent participants. The line runs from Lincoln, who in his Second Inaugural said, "[L]et us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

This is a singular accomplishment for Webb, and is worthy of a ribbon and a salute.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2009/aug/06/ed-webb06_20090805-185408-ar-35027/