Tri-Towns Bureau

Local veterans of various eras said Thursday, with a few exceptions, they support military action to disarm Iraq.

John Gallagher, 78, of Sidney, who served in the Navy during World War II, said President Bush gave too much time to working out a diplomatic solution to the problems of disarmament.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "has been laughing at us for the last 12 years" since the first resolutions calling for disarmament, Gallagher said.

Referring to the months of debate in the United Nations over resolutions to force disarmament, he said "The U.N. is nothing but a bunch of politicians."

He said he is sorry the situation resulted in war, but Bush had no choice.

"Let's get it over with as soon as we can," he said.

Raymond Baringer, 65, of Masonville served in the Army from 1955-60 in several stateside locations. He said Bush has given diplomacy "plenty of time."

"If anything, he has been too patient," he said.

If Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction to hide, he said, why didn't he turn over all weapons to U.N. weapons inspectors when they were in Iraq?

Instead, he said, the inspectors had to find missiles and order Saddam to destroy them.

The war was necessary, Baringer said."We don't know what else he has."

Franklin resident Jack Early, 63, served in the Air Force from 1960-63 at several bases in the United States.

"With the threat I believe (Saddam) is, he has to be removed," Early said.

He said the U.N. resolutions weren't fulfilled, and war was the correct response.

In rebuilding the post-war government in Iraq, Early said, the United States knows people able to fill those roles.

But not everyone agrees. Two Vietnam era veterans have differing views of the war.

Steve Story, 56, of Sidney was in the Marine Corps from 1966-70 and served in Vietnam from 1969-70.

"I'm a strong believer in the U.N," Story said. "We have to come up with a better way of dealing with these problems than going to war."

"I support the troops over there, but I would have given diplomacy more time," Story said. Another month or two of searches by weapons inspectors "wouldn't have mattered in the overall scheme of things," he said.

But Edward Jensen, 56, of Masonville who served in Vietnam, providing gunfire support with the U.S. Navy from 1966-67, said U.S. forces "should have gone in and done it right the first time," referring to the first Gulf War.

Bush had to give Hussein an ultimatum threatening war, because the Iraqi leader had been "holding back" on turning over weapons of mass destruction, Jensen said.

"Weapons inspectors were restricted from doing their job," Jensen said. and Bush had little choice other than "to get rid of Hussein."

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Mark Boshnack can be reached at starsidney@stny.rr.com or at (607) 563-1493.