Bush Will OK War Memorial

President Bush will sign a law today to build a World War II memorial seen as a long overdue tribute by supporters and as a scar on one of the capital’s great open spaces by detractors.

Marking Memorial Day, Bush will put his stamp of approval on legislation to erect a memorial of granite pillars, bronze wreaths and gold stars surrounding a pool on the National Mall, a vast swath of green in the heart of the nation’s capital.

Critics say the memorial will ruin one of Washington’s great vistas because it will sit squarely between the needle-shaped Washington Monument and the neoclassical Lincoln Memorial along the Mall’s central spine.

The Republican president came down squarely on the side of the more than 500,000 private citizens, 48 state legislatures, 1,100 schools and 450 veterans groups that supporters say have contributed funds to build the $160-million memorial.

“It’s an important way to honor America’s greatest generation and to pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed for their country,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bush planned to sign the legislation at a White House breakfast for veterans, after which he will mark Memorial Day, the U.S. holiday honoring fallen U.S. soldiers, with a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery and then fly to Arizona for another remembrance event, McClellan said.

The controversy over the memorial to U.S. men and women who fought in World War II has lasted longer than the war itself, with plans mired in disputes over the design since Congress approved it in 1993.

The law that Bush will sign aims to end a court challenge to the monument and to rule the already approved plans as final, removing all obstacles to construction.

The memorial is designed to honor the 16 million men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces during the war, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home.

The National Coalition to Save Our Mall, which opposes the design, believes World War II veterans deserve a memorial but that the plan violates the basic conception of the National Mall as an open green space.