WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Veterans share views on Iraqi war
Soldiers of Vietnam Persian Gulf Wars speak out on conflict
Ketley Weiss/Kansan
Chris White, Lawrence graduate student, rallies anti-war protesters in South Park after hundreds of demonstrators marched down Massachusetts Street in this photo from Feb. 15. After serving as a marine, White became a Veteran for Peace.
By Kelley Weiss
kweiss@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
War veterans at the University of Kansas offer a unique perspective about the conflict in Iraq.
From veterans who served in the Vietnam War to those in the Persian Gulf War, they've all brought something back from their time spent overseas, which has influenced how they look at the war in Iraq.
After serving his country in Vietnam, Andy Burton said he had an acute understanding of what war meant.
Burton, Leavenworth graduate student, who is working toward his doctorate in developmental and child psychology, served in the Vietnam War for 26 months. Burton developed a disability called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his service in the war.
PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur after experiencing or witnessing life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents or violent personal assaults such as rape, according to the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
Anyone who is involved in a violent situation is susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Burton said. Some of the soldiers serving in Iraq will come home with PTSD because the tragedies of war can leave a lasting impact, he said.
"I have a lot of anxiety," Burton said. "I fear for the young because they don't know what lies ahead, and I fear for the older people who think they know."
The hastiness of the United States to start the war in Iraq was cause for concern, Burton said.
"War is the last resort and I don't think we've exhausted all of our resources." Burton said. "I think it's necessary, but very hard, to justify to the mothers and fathers of service members."
Chris White, a graduate student in history from Fresno, Calif., served from 1994 to 1998 as a sergeant in the Marine Corps infantry. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, White said he became a veteran for peace. The war fever that overtook the country after the attacks was alarming, White said. During his service in the Marine Corps, White said he realized his perception of the U.S. military defending democracy was not correct.
"It became apparent that our training had nothing to do with national defense, but everything to do with American elite national interests," White said.
White said he was not opposed to war universally but evaluated each one on a case-to-case basis. In the case of the war in Iraq, White is opposed to the decision to invade.
"My academic research has informed my decision to oppose
this war and Bush's foreign policy." White said.
Leonard Magruder, president of the Student Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform, said he supported the war in Iraq. Although Magruder is not a war veteran, he said he was a Vietnam War historian. He said he saw parallels between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. Magruder said he thought the United States fought in the Vietnam War to stop the spread of communism from China and Russia. By invading Iraq, Magruder theorized, the Bush administration wanted a toe-hold in the Middle East to use as a deterrent of terrorist attacks on the United States.
In both wars, the United States was trying to prevent threats to the country, one being communism and the other being terrorism, Magruder said. He said because terrorism was a major threat to the United States, he agreed with the war in Iraq.
Adam Pousson, computer support technician for the Kansas Memorial Unions, served in the Navy from 1994 to 1998 and said
his experience changed his idea of how the United States should use its power.
"Before I went into the military I was like, 'This is the American way. Don't mess with us, or we'll blow you up,'" Pousson said. "But now I realize we have to handle our responsibility as a super power more carefully."
The war in Iraq is an example of how the United States is using its power carelessly, Pousson said. The invasion of Iraq was too early and the United States is not over there just to liberate Iraq, Pousson said.
Troy Heidner, information systems manager at the Kansas Memorial Unions, served as an avionic technician in the Persian Gulf War from November 1991 through February 1992. Heidner said he did not have a definite position about the legitimacy of the war. He said he understood both sides but leaned more toward being supportive of the war and the troops. What will happen after the war is what Heidner said he was uncertain about.
— Edited by Anne Mantey
Students question embedded reports
By Lauren Bristow
Ibristow@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
"Embedded reporter" has become a household term the past week and a half, and television viewers have had the opportunity to watch bombing campaigns on Baghdad live, 24 hours a day.
Students such as Mike Grabb, Overland Park senior, have mixed feelings about the media's coverage of the war with Iraq.
"The reporters with the troops have brought me new aspects of the war that I didn't think about before. I saw Tommy Franks on TV saying that the troops had plenty of food but then, a half an hour later, the reporter said they were down to one ration a day." Grabb said, referring to General Tommy Franks, who is in charge of the U.S. Central Command.
Grabb was surprised when a reporter told viewers that troops had to use the desert as a bathroom, he said.
"You just don't think about things like that," he said. "If the reporters weren't there, I wouldn't know about the little things that I didn't thought about."
But Grabb said he thought the media was providing too much coverage.
"I don't want to hear everything," he said. "I just want to know the general idea of what is going on."
Kelly Johnson, St. Louis senior, said she questioned the accuracy of all information the media and embedded reporters relayed.
"I don't think we really know what's going on," she said. "It's television, so they
"If the reporters weren't there, I wouldn't know about the little things that I hadn't thought about."
Mike Grabb
Overland Park senior
control everything you see."
Although Johnson said she liked to be updated about what was going on with the war, at times she questioned the media's choices of broadcast material.
"Watching a country being bombed live is just too real," she said. "I just don't think we need to see buildings being blown up."
Dick Nelson, newsroom coordinator for KUJH-TV and KJHK Radio, said he thought embedded reporters were doing a good job reporting news, but downfalls existed to a reporter being with one group of people throughout the entire war.
"It's really easy when you're receiving and relying on information from one side to lose objectivity," he said. "It's also really easy to get caught up in the spirit of the story."
Nelson pointed out that embedded reporters do have restrictions about what they can report.
"The reporters will say something like, 'I can't tell you where we are,'" he said. "But even with the restrictions, the coverage is certainly better than the first Gulf War when the media was limited to daily briefings from Riyad or someplace like that."
Edited by Jason Elliott
Baghdad survives bombs
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Nearly two weeks after the U.S.-led air campaign began with daily raids on Baghdad, the Iraqi capital maintains the appearance of a functioning city despite damage to dozens of sites.
The targets have varied greatly, from presidential palaces to residential areas and at least five telephone exchanges. But the city's power supply remains intact and street lights come on at night.
The phone exchanges have provided the city's 5 million inhabitants with the most graphic scenes
of destruction. Strewn among the wreckage are thousands of wires, furniture, computers, metal cabinets, chairs and the sponge used to fill in false walls and ceilings.
The exchanges were struck in remarkably accurate hits, taking out the target and largely leaving everything around it intact. There have been no casualties in those middle-of-the-night strikes.
That timing played out again late Monday and early yesterday. Allied warplanes and missiles blasted Iraq's Olympic headquarters, one of Saddam Hussein's palaces and what was believed to be an air force officers club.
What a gas!
Scott Reynolds/Kansan
Lawrence firefighters respond to a gas leak at the Texaco gas station at Ninth and Mississippi streets. The pictured vehicle struck and ruptured the gas line running from the tanker truck into an underground storage tank, releasing nearly 200 gallons of unleaded gasoline. Mark Bradford deputy chief of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical, said that after working to contain the gasoline at the spill, the department began tracing any gas that entered the storm drainage system. He said that firefighters would use a boom or coffer dam to keep gasoline from entering the river.
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