U.S. Troops Get The Message
U.S. Marines and sailors in the Gulf said Wednesday that President Bush's State of the Union address confirmed what they had long suspected: War with Iraq is imminent.
Some Marines and sailors on the three-ship amphibious readiness group led by the USS Nassau got up early to watch the speech broadcast live on satellite television — just before dawn in the Gulf.
The speech was rebroadcast during lunch aboard another vessel in the group, the USS Austin, an amphibious docking ship.
Although many of the ships' crew members were also interested in Mr. Bush's comments on the economy, the specter of war was foremost on the minds of the men and women who would fight it.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Freddy Townsend, of Fort Worth, Texas, said he was not eager to go to war, but after watching the speech the "impression I got was that we are."
Mr. Bush has threatened to use force to ensure that Iraq destroy any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons it may possess. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has denied having such weapons and U.N. weapons inspectors are attempting to verify that claim.
The sailors and Marines in the amphibious group offered their own private opinions, many of them similar to their civilian countrymen back home.
"I think he's trying to keep us informed and convince us to stand by him," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Arturo Lopez-Duprey, from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. "I think he's trying to get a more positive view."
Maj. Mark Minotti, the executive officer of the support unit of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said he noted with interest that the president alluded to intelligence information that allegedly links Saddam to al Qaeda.
"I think there is no way to get back to normalcy for America until we deal with this problem," said Minotti of San Diego, California.
Official U.S. military spokesmen in the Gulf declined to comment on the remarks made by their commander in chief.
"We're prepared and ready to support the president in whatever decision he makes," U.S. military spokesman Capt. David Connolly said at Camp Doha in Kuwait.
But back home, Dave Mattingly wasn't convinced that war was solution. His 21-year-old Marine son was sent to the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, and listening to Mr. Bush talk about the threat from Saddam just made Mattingly angry.
"He's going to have his war one way or another, no matter what the rest of the world thinks," Mattingly, 49, said as he walked away from a bank of big-screen televisions at a Sears store in Las Vegas.
Bob Soper saw the devastation of war firsthand, and it turned him against it. But after listening to President Bush outline the threat posed by Iraq in his State of the Union address, the 90-year-old World War II veteran felt differently.
"I was 100 percent against going to war," said Soper, a Republican who now lives in a Minneapolis retirement home. "He has changed my mind."
The president gave few details of what lies ahead for U.S. troops, but Luann Hoyseth, 26, didn't mind as she listened with fellow military wives in Hinesville, Ga. Two weeks ago, she said goodbye to her husband, 1st Lt. Colin Hoyseth, when he was deployed to Kuwait with his Army unit.
"It endangers my husband's life, so I'm glad he's not giving it all away right now," she said.
"When he comes home, they're going to be heroes — not just to us, but to the Iraqi people," she said. "President Bush is doing the right thing."
Fifth-grade teacher Jeff McClain, 56, of Oakland, Calif., isn't so sure.
"I certainly don't think that Saddam Hussein is a nice person. I think he's done terrible things," McClain said. "But I don't see that as an immediate threat to the American people. I see it as an immediate threat to the oil business. I see Bush representing that interest and not the interest of the American people."