GILROY
– South Valley churches, students and residents are expressing
mixed opinions on war with Iraq as the Bush administration moves
ahead to attack based on its contention Saddam Hussein is hiding
biological, nuclear and chemical weapons and has ties to Al-Qaida
terrorists.
GILROY – South Valley churches, students and residents are expressing mixed opinions on war with Iraq as the Bush administration moves ahead to attack based on its contention Saddam Hussein is hiding biological, nuclear and chemical weapons and has ties to Al-Qaida terrorists.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the United States would invade Iraq alone if European allies did not give their support. President Bush will make his appeal to the nation for the invasion during his State of the Union speech today at 6 p.m.
Wayne Cegelske, post chaplain of Gilroy’s Veterans of Foreign War Post 6309, said many local veterans he has talked to support the administration’s planned invasion of Iraq.
“Most of the veterans think that the conflict should have been resolved in 1991 (during the Gulf War),” he said. “We think this is kind of a waste, but we still support the action. We had him (Saddam Hussein) where we wanted him in 1991, and should have completed the job.”
Cegelske served two tours of duty in Vietnam and said the invasion of any country by American military forces should not be a light decision.
But for the safety of the world and America, he believes the Iraq invasion is justified.
The local VFW post gives its support to the service people who have already left for the Middle East, he said.
Several local churches and religious organizations have expressed their formal opposition to the Bush administration’s plan to invade Iraq and have called for peaceful means to end the conflict.
Gilroy resident Marta Sherwood questions the legitimacy of a U.S. invasion of Iraq and said such action would make Americans look like “aggressive Yankee imperialists.”
“We should not be the aggressor,” she said. “We haven’t seen the weapons. If he (Hussein) had them, he would have used them already.”
On Jan. 18, her husband Harry Sherwood, a lay minister at Morgan Hill’s St. John Episcopal Church, participated in the El Camino Real Diocesan Convention which passed a resolution opposing war with Iraq, she said.
In October, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church came out with a statement against war because “clear and convincing evidence” has not been presented for the need from defense against imminent attack from Iraq.
“It’s really interesting that the church is taking a stand – especially such a conservative church,” Marta said.
Father William Clancey of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Gilroy, said he and his parish congregation have prayed for months for a peaceful resolution with Iraq, but he is “a little dubious” of the church’s resolution for peace.
“I have some problem with it,” he said. “People who make these pronouncements probably don’t have the information they need to make them. … That’s my personal opinion.”
Clancey saw the devastation of war firsthand when he served as a Marine in the South Pacific for two years during World War II. He believes a war with Iraq should be a “last resort” and, at this point, the threat from Saddam Hussein “doesn’t appear that imminent.”
Father Dan Derry at St. Mary Parish said his congregation has prayed for a peaceful resolution for the U.S.-Iraq conflict, and many members have expressed to him their opposition to a possible invasion.
The issue of an invasion has been discussed at the monthly ministerial meeting with other churches in Gilroy including the local Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist churches, he said.
“Without the sanctions of the United Nations, we appear to be a bully,” Derry said.
Many religious leaders in Gilroy have expressed moral reservations about going to war with Iraq because the United State’s motives are questionable, he said.
The Catholic church has four principles to determine a “just war” and these have not been met according to the pope and American bishops, Derry said. These principles say a war is a just war if it is fought for a just cause, initiated by a legitimate authority, done for the protection of the innocent, and entered into only as a last resort.
“The pope … and the bishop of the diocese … have come out consistently as saying it does not meet these conditions,” he said.
Students and teachers at St. Mary School in Gilroy will hold a short “Walk for Peace” around the campus grounds on Wednesday at 8:15 a.m., said Vicki Brinkman, director of development at the parochial school.
They will carry signs with peace messages and place a flag on the fence along the Church Street side of the school, she said.
The walk is an annual tradition started during the Gulf War and is not an anti-war demonstration, she said.
The school’s eighth-grade students expressed their concerns in classroom discussions Monday morning on the possible war with Iraq, said JoAnn Castori, a social science teacher at St. Mary.
“They’re actually very frightened about it,” she said. “They have older brothers and sisters that can be possibly called up to fight.”
In a classroom vote, about 5 percent of the class said they supported the idea of going to war with Iraq, she said.
“One boy said, if we went to war, Iraq would use nuclear weapons. Yet, if we did not go to war, Iraq would have more time to develop their technology,” she said.
The school takes students on an annual field trip to Sacramento, and one of the sites visited is the Vietnam War Memorial there, she said.
“It has a big impact on them because they see the ages of the men who died, 18, 19 years old – not that much older than them,” she said. “So many of the students have a fear that they might be called to fight in a war if it continues for years as the Vietnam War did.”
