thedrifter
03-19-08, 06:21 AM
Awaiting the end
It's time to come home, many area veterans say
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
BY JIM LEWIS
Of The Patriot-News
When Mike Zerby and his fellow Marines stormed Baghdad during the Iraq War five years ago, they discovered guns and surface-to-air missiles hidden in an elementary school -- and a disturbing mural painted on one school wall.
It was a picture of an Iraqi soldier shooting his rifle into the head of a red-white-and-blue Uncle Sam. The paint was old. It filled the wall, a message so simple that even young children could understand it.
Zerby, 27, now a civilian living in Halifax Twp., thinks of that mural when he talks about the war, about the struggle by U.S. troops and their allies to restore peace to Iraq. He thinks of an entire generation of Iraqis who were taught to hate America, and he wonders if the onslaught of suicide bombings can be stopped anytime soon.
"I don't think we should be there any more," Zerby said, now a welder and steel fabricator for a Halifax stove manufacturer. "It's completely out of control. I don't think they're ever going to gain complete control."
As the war in Iraq reaches its fifth anniversary, other veterans agree that it has gone on too long. They don't question President Bush's decision to attack. But they wonder why the war isn't over.
To H.R. Manley, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Korean War, the war in Iraq should have ended by now.
"It should be one shot and done," said Manley as he sat at the crowded bar Tuesday in the American Legion Post 422 in Steelton, where a sign on the main street lists the hundreds of young local men who served in the military during World War II.
"We're the most powerful nation in the world," Manley said. "We ought to go in there and get it over with and get our troops out."
Many veterans agree that U.S. troops should have invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam from power.
"There was genocide going on, things like that," said Rick Coonradt, a retired police chief from Lewisberry and Navy veteran of the Vietnam War. "The guy needed to be taken out, and he was taken out. We're not doing our job if we don't do something -- and if we don't do something, we're damned, too."
Coonradt quickly points out "I don't like war" and noted that Bush has been "hard-headed sometimes" in the protracted war in Iraq, but believes the war has gone on this long because "we're trying to help the people" there.
"Sometimes you have insurgents who don't want help," he said. "They want to do things their own way."
When the war began amid suspicions that Saddam possessed weapons that threatened the Middle East, it seemed right to attack, said Brian Quaid, a Marine from 1984 to 1988 and now a dock worker for a trucking company.
"The first two months before it happened, I couldn't wait until it happened," recalled Quaid, of Wormleysburg.
Now he believes the war is being fought over "oil ... to secure our future because we're so oil dependent," he said.
"I was hoodwinked," insisted Quaid, who said troops should begin to leave Iraq.
Edward E. Randleman Jr., 59, an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War, fears the war will be extended to improve a weakened economy, to create a need for goods -- even those needed for war.
"We have war hawks back in history who wanted war to keep the economy running," said Randleman, sitting in the Ephraim Slaughter American Legion Post 733 in Harrisburg.
When he considers the length and accomplishments of the war, he produces this analysis: "We're doing good, but it's time for us to come home."
JIM LEWIS: 255-8479 or jlewis@patriot-news.com
Ellie
It's time to come home, many area veterans say
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
BY JIM LEWIS
Of The Patriot-News
When Mike Zerby and his fellow Marines stormed Baghdad during the Iraq War five years ago, they discovered guns and surface-to-air missiles hidden in an elementary school -- and a disturbing mural painted on one school wall.
It was a picture of an Iraqi soldier shooting his rifle into the head of a red-white-and-blue Uncle Sam. The paint was old. It filled the wall, a message so simple that even young children could understand it.
Zerby, 27, now a civilian living in Halifax Twp., thinks of that mural when he talks about the war, about the struggle by U.S. troops and their allies to restore peace to Iraq. He thinks of an entire generation of Iraqis who were taught to hate America, and he wonders if the onslaught of suicide bombings can be stopped anytime soon.
"I don't think we should be there any more," Zerby said, now a welder and steel fabricator for a Halifax stove manufacturer. "It's completely out of control. I don't think they're ever going to gain complete control."
As the war in Iraq reaches its fifth anniversary, other veterans agree that it has gone on too long. They don't question President Bush's decision to attack. But they wonder why the war isn't over.
To H.R. Manley, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Korean War, the war in Iraq should have ended by now.
"It should be one shot and done," said Manley as he sat at the crowded bar Tuesday in the American Legion Post 422 in Steelton, where a sign on the main street lists the hundreds of young local men who served in the military during World War II.
"We're the most powerful nation in the world," Manley said. "We ought to go in there and get it over with and get our troops out."
Many veterans agree that U.S. troops should have invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam from power.
"There was genocide going on, things like that," said Rick Coonradt, a retired police chief from Lewisberry and Navy veteran of the Vietnam War. "The guy needed to be taken out, and he was taken out. We're not doing our job if we don't do something -- and if we don't do something, we're damned, too."
Coonradt quickly points out "I don't like war" and noted that Bush has been "hard-headed sometimes" in the protracted war in Iraq, but believes the war has gone on this long because "we're trying to help the people" there.
"Sometimes you have insurgents who don't want help," he said. "They want to do things their own way."
When the war began amid suspicions that Saddam possessed weapons that threatened the Middle East, it seemed right to attack, said Brian Quaid, a Marine from 1984 to 1988 and now a dock worker for a trucking company.
"The first two months before it happened, I couldn't wait until it happened," recalled Quaid, of Wormleysburg.
Now he believes the war is being fought over "oil ... to secure our future because we're so oil dependent," he said.
"I was hoodwinked," insisted Quaid, who said troops should begin to leave Iraq.
Edward E. Randleman Jr., 59, an Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War, fears the war will be extended to improve a weakened economy, to create a need for goods -- even those needed for war.
"We have war hawks back in history who wanted war to keep the economy running," said Randleman, sitting in the Ephraim Slaughter American Legion Post 733 in Harrisburg.
When he considers the length and accomplishments of the war, he produces this analysis: "We're doing good, but it's time for us to come home."
JIM LEWIS: 255-8479 or jlewis@patriot-news.com
Ellie