US heartlands will keep doubts until war begins
From Roland Watson in London, Ohio
timesonline.co.uk
January 11, 2003
Right or wrong: a farewell at a marine base yesterday in New York state. Civilians in Middle America remain uncertain about sending troops to war
PRESIDENT BUSH may have roused his troops for war, but his civilians are uneasy. The Marines are on the march, but much of Middle America remains unmoved.
War with Iraq is slowly forcing itself into the living rooms and coffee shops of small towns across the states. London, Ohio, a rural, largely conservative, cradle-to-grave community founded in 1811, is one place such talk has reached.
Townsfolk, for whom Washington DC, let alone Baghdad, seems a world away, are not ready for war. They question President Bush’s motives, wonder about the strength of his evidence, remember Vietnam, and fear that the consequences may reach their peaceful doorsteps.
But a signature heartland trait, stronger than individual doubts, underlies the attitude of almost everyone. When Mr Bush, their Commander-in-Chief, goes on national television to announce the start of military action, they will swallow their concerns, snap a salute and fall into line. It would never happen in Britain.
It was to Cincinnati, 200 miles across the rolling Mid-Western plains, that Mr Bush came last October to try to bring to life the threat he says President Saddam Hussein poses to all Americans. The location was carefully chosen. Ohio is a bellwether state, backing Mr Bush in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
Few among London’s 8,000 residents need further convincing that Saddam is a bad man. What they are not convinced of is the need for war.
“I don’t feel the Government has given adequate proof to the people yet,” says T.J. Dwyer, who owns a hardware business in town. “For most people in Middle America, it’s too far removed from their daily life. Korea is the biggest worry. That’s scary.” Mr Bush has tried to make central to his argument that Saddam is a threat to every single American, but the message has not filtered through to London. As Peter Mosier, who manages a family-run coffee shop called Buckleys in the centre of town, said: “It’s a little hard to feel threatened in a town this small.”
Others cite different threats. Bill Young, a farmer born in London, questioned whether Iraq is such a high priority that the US should go to war. “We are already involved with bin Laden,” he said.
Some customers, nursing cups of Buckleys coffee against the chill and snow outside, go further. “America is on the most dangerous course of my lifetime, and it shows we haven’t learnt anything from Vietnam,” Howard Weinerman, 43, an environmental consultant, said. “I don’t think America should go into anything like this which the rest of the world doesn’t support. Maybe we should be asking the British in retrospect about their empire-building. We are big enough to be cocky, but not big enough to take on the entire Islamic world.”
Mr Bush has his supporters. When they talk, what is most notable is the way a question about Saddam or Iraq prompts an answer about Islamic terrorists as a whole. “Is Saddam a threat? Yes, I think they are,” Diana Elan, a grocery store worker, said, demonstrating the success of Mr Bush’s efforts to equate the September 11 attacks with the regime in Baghdad.
There are also those prepared to give Mr Bush the benefit of the doubt, perhaps as a way of dealing with their misgivings. Mr Mosier, 29, says he understands that the Administration cannot reveal its hand. “I’m willing to believe that they know more than I know. If Iraq is as dangerous as they say it is, maybe they better do it.” But he has a friend in the Marines, and the war could become horribly personal. “There better be a good reason. And if they do it, they better do it right. In the past, the country has got itself involved in wars when it didn’t know what it was doing.”
His sister, Emily, 22, also has friends in the military who are certain to be Gulf-bound. “They are all frightened,” she said. “All their parents are frightened. People generally seem a lot more afraid that this time something very destructive will happen.”
Thirty eight years ago, Jack DeWitt gave serious thought to absconding to avoid going to Vietnam to fight in a war he still cannot see the point of. But today, Mr DeWitt, 56, trusts his President, believing him to have the best of intentions. He sees Saddam as a threat, but then begins an animated speech about how “they” brainwash people into becoming suicide bombers.
On being approached by The Times, hearing an unfamiliar accent and seeing a bulky coat, it had crossed his mind that Buckleys might be under attack. “You just don’t know these days,” he said.
But perhaps the most telling remarks came from Dennis Baker, 48, the director of a waste disposal agency, who did not vote for Mr Bush in 2000 and will not be doing so next year. Mr Baker believes that there are other ways to get Saddam than by sending the military. But he would feel obliged to back the President the moment Mr Bush announced that US forces were at war. “I would have to go along with him and support him as far as that goes. But that doesn’t mean I think he’s doing the right thing.” |
