Yesterday morning, about 450 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rallied outside the Capitol to support General Petraeus and the mission in Iraq. "We're here to tell Congress not to micromanage the war from air-conditioned offices on Capitol Hill," said Pete Hegseth, a decorated Iraq veteran and executive director of Vets for Freedom, the veterans' group dedicated to victory in Iraq that organized the rally.
Over a dozen lawmakers, including John McCain, spoke at the rally before the Vets for Freedom flooded Senate and House office buildings to attend over 300 meetings with senators, congressmen, and congressional aides. Certainly each of these veterans has accomplished much greater feats than lobbying legislators, but today marked a significant milestone for Vets for Freedom. Conceived at the end of 2005 by a handful of soldiers and Marines who gathered in a bar in Charleston, S.C., the group now boasts a membership of over 22,000. "This is the single largest gathering of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans since the war began," Hegseth told his fellow veterans. "You guys are continuing the battle here at home in the arena of public opinion."
Yesterday's events were part of a Vets for Freedom "national heroes tour" that hit 21 cities in 14 states. "We've reached well over 20 million Americans through local media outlets--about $2 million worth of earned media," Hegseth told me. "So much of what we're trying to refute is this idea that veterans are a bunch of victims of Bush's war who came back with injuries that they can't overcome," he added. "We want to show that we're proud of our service."
At least 17 veterans are demonstrating their continued leadership by running for Congress as Republicans. "As a soldier, it often appears that our civilian leadership in Congress gravely misunderstands the consequences of victory or defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan," said David Bellavia, a cofounder of Vets for Freedom and a Medal of Honor nominee who is vying for Republican Tom Reynolds' open seat in western New York.
Bellavia, like a few other Vets for Freedom, has written a memoir about his wartime experiences. Navy Cross recipient Marcus Luttrell penned the bestselling Lone Survivor, and another Navy Cross recipient, Jeremiah Workman, is currently writing a book that focuses primarily on his bout with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. "People can look at me and say: ‘You know what? He had PTSD and now he's working for the sergeant major of Marine Corps and doing good for himself,'" Workman told me. He hopes his book will help get rid of the stigma associated with PTSD and also inform Americans that most "people diagnosed with PTSD accept it and they deal with it, and we would be back over there in Fallujah tonight if we could be."
Of course, most of the Vets for Freedom are not congressional candidates and authors. The vast majority are simply extraordinary men and women who continue to make sacrifices in pursuit of victory in Iraq. They take off school, they take off work, and they travel to the nation's capital because they believe their mission is not finished.
Though the "national heroes tour" has now wrapped up, you can expect to see more of the Vets for Freedom in the coming months. "The presidential [campaign] is where this fight's going to be held," Hegseth told me. "We're going to do what we can to shape the public discourse about Iraq."
