Town turns against conduct of the war (and Bush) | Boston Globe

[Ediacara]

Town turns against conduct of the war

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | May 1, 2004

WELLSBURG, W.Va. -- On the morning of Lance Corporal Michael J. Smith Jr.'s funeral, as his casket journeyed from Reasners Funeral Home across the Ohio River to Grace Lutheran Church, television screens flashed green images not seen in the year since President Bush stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared, "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

The images were night bombing photos from Fallujah, where US warplanes were dropping bombs not far from where Smith had been killed April 17. Tiny bursts of white exploded on the screen while reporters said prayers could be heard in the city's mosques.

In the Family Dollar discount store on Route 2, Beulah Brown looked at her friend Isabelle Kocher and said: "What we saw this morning -- it's really bad over there. It's getting really bad."

In the Corner Lunch, John Fox, who joined the Air Force back in 1958, looked at three fellow retirees and said, "They're doing today what they should have done two weeks ago -- take out that whole town, that whole 'Fallu' over there."

More at the Boston Globe

[riverwalker]

1. 57% think Bush is "better at security"

is amazing to me. I can understand the young people being confused, but the "adults"? It's like in Ghana, when Jim Jones was passing out the poison Kool-aid, the parents would lift the cup to the lips of those too young to drink it themselves. As far as I am concerned, any parent who supports Bush is doing the same thing.

[short bus president]

3. Guinea, not Ghana

but your sentiment is spot-on. 'murka is half full of some jonestown-kool-aid-drinkin' asshats.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. It was G-U-Y-A-N-A.

n/t

:nuke:

[JoFerret]

9. Guyana not Guinea or Ghana

.

[cliss]

2. And this is probably your average response.

In a way, I can't really blame them. This is Joe Average. He's struggling to figure out what's going on over there. He has trust and faith in his leaders. He figures that they know what they're doing, and they'll see his country through to victory, whatever that may be (he's not sure about that one).

The notion that his leaders would deceive him never enters his mind. He knew long ago that this country was God's Own Beloved, a Divine Plan turned to Reality and approved by the Creator.

That's the way faith is. Let's hope that with enough time, that blind faith may become a little eroded.

[wryter2000]

6. To quote Willie Nelson

"They wouldn't lie to me
Not on my own damned TV"

[IndianaGreen]

4. "There were 58,219 guys there killed for nothing."

One town over in Wheeling, where Smith was born 21 years ago, Richard J. Seals sat at a community meeting and ticked off the names of his friends killed in Vietnam: "There were 58,219 guys there killed for nothing. It's the same thing now. They hate our guts. They don't even want us there."

Except for peace candidate Dennis Kucinich, Bush and Kerry want to "stay the course" until Iraq becomes "stable." If a President Kerry does not pull the troops out of Iraq when he takes office in January, as Spanish Premier Zapatero did, we will have more people dying for nothing in Iraq.

[Merlin]

7. You can't do it by just pulling out. It can't be done. You'd be impeached.

And obviously if you called for it in advance of the election, you wouldn't get elected.

Surely that should be obvious to you. You read the polls. You know what the average idiot white male is like in this country.

The only way to do it is to internationalize it, and let the UN or NATO end it through "negotiations." That's what Kerry is calling for.

I predict to you that by October, he'll be calling his plan "a plan to end the war." I say that based on direct conversation.

[CJCRANE]

8. Just there being

a President Kerry will change how the rest of the world views America.
The honeymoon period may not last long, but it's our only hope.