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thedrifter
01-12-07, 06:30 AM
Local soldiers, families sound off on Bush’s plans for Iraq
Friday, January 12, 2007
By Lori Monsewicz REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

The Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee condemned President Bush’s call to send more than 20,000 additional soldiers to war in Iraq.

“The past four years of war and occupation have shown that military force is not the solution to the chaos and civil war in Iraq,” the Cuyahoga Falls-based group said in a news release Thursday. The group is asking Congress to “de-fund the occupation and remove troops and close military bases immediately.”

Some former soldiers in Stark County don’t think it’s a good idea, either.

“I think the $6.8 billion George Bush is asking for can be better spent on looking for better fuel sources ... than into trying to be imperialist,” said Shawn Gibbons of Massillon. He served nearly six years in the Marines and is no longer in the service.

“We can’t even protect our borders here, we’ve got Mexicans and other illegals flooding into this country ... . I think we can invest that money where it can be better used,” he said.

Other Stark County soldiers and their families say they support the president’s decision.

“I think at this point there’s so much invested that I see it pointless to back out, and that we need to do whatever we have to do to try to keep control over there. I just think it’s going to take more time than people are willing to give it,” said Bo Roach of Louisville. Roach is a U.S. Marine who has returned from his duties with the 311th Squadron, a fighter squadron unit in the Persian Gulf.

Not enough troops

Hal Barkey of Lawrence Township, whose son Michael Barkey was killed July 7, 2004, at the age of 22 in Iraq when the truck he was riding in flipped over in an accident, said, “I support the president 100 percent. Global terrorism must be defeated. We must not quit.”

Canton resident Peggy Buryj, whose son Pfc. Jesse Buryj was killed at the age of 21 on May 5, 2004, when he was shot in the back by friendly fire, said she doesn’t think 20,000 troops is enough.

“That’s a drop in the bucket as far as I’m concerned,” she said, recommending Bush send at least 100,000 soldiers. “They have to secure Baghdad. Civilians are dying every day over there; our soldiers are dying every day over there. Some of those guys are on their third tour of duty. You didn’t do three tours in Vietnam without seeing a psychiatrist.

“If they pull out, I just feel like my son just died for nothing.”

Buryj said she believes that U.S. soldiers shouldn’t leave Iraq until that country is secure and the Iraqi people “step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own country.”

She wondered whether the U.S. would always need to have a military presence there because, “There’s a lot of hatred there, and if it’s a breeding ground for terrorists ... .”

More support found

Some area parents whose grown children are facing re-deployment to Iraq, also said they supported the president’s decision.

Massillon resident Robert Gibbons, who served in the U.S. Marines from 1966-68 in Vietnam, said although one of his sons is no longer in the service, another son, Brian Gibbons, is in the Reserves studying to be a chaplain and may be heading back to Iraq after having been there twice.

Gibbons said he supports Bush “100 percent. I would much rather try to deal with this there than here. It is a mess though, isn’t it?”

Gibbons said that he and his family are Christians, adding that their daughter has served as a missionary in Africa for seven years in addition to their sons serving in the Marines.

“I believe that God’s in control and as long as my children are where God wants them, I don’t really worry. My wife and I, we both feel that very strongly.”

Also a Marine, his son Shawn Gibbons served four years on active duty, getting out in 2000.

“After 9/11 hit, I was recalled for six months. I got out again and was married and then was recalled again. I was there for a year,” Shawn Gibbons said.

He opposes Bush’s plan to deploy more troops.

“After 9/11, I was just like every other American: I was just looking for somebody to blame. And when they pointed the finger at Iraq, I was all for it,” he said.

But, he said, “This war is dragging on too long. I thing it’s obvious to everyone in this country that this war is over petroleum.”

And, he said, he believes the money going to support it could be better spent on other efforts.

Reach Repository writer Lori Monsewicz at (330) 580-8309 or e-mail: lori.monsewicz@cantonrep.com

repository MICHAEL S. BALASH

SUPPORTING THE PRESIDENT Peggy Buryj holds a photograph of her now-deceased son, Army Pfc. Jesse R. Buryj, who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Like other Stark County parents of soldiers killed in the war, she supports President Bush’s decision to deploy 21,500 more troops to the region.

Repository MICHAEL S. BALASH

A CHILD’S CREATION This drawing, made in the third grade by Army Pfc. Jesse R. Buryj, who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, was left at his mother’s door shortly after his death, supposedly by a former teacher. Peggy Buryj displays it at her home in memory of her son, who first expressed an interest in police work as a third-grader.

Stark County-area soldiers killed in Iraq:

-- Pvt. Heath Warner, 19, Canton

-- Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Crabtree, 31, Green

-- Spc. Jesse Buryj, 21, Canton

-- 1st Lt. Aaron N. Seesan, 24, Massillon

-- Staff Sgt. Richard P. Ramey, 27, Perry Township

-- Staff Sgt. Michael Barkey, 22, Lawrence Township

-- Spc. Kevin W. Prince, 22, Mount Gilead (born in Canton)

-- Lance Cpl. Daniel M. McVicker, 20, Alliance (2003 West Branch graduate)

-- Spc. Richard A. Hardy, 24, Dennison (born in Bolivar, lived in Canton)

Ellie