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Thursday, January 17, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Gulf war: Nation/World
News of war grips country, brings support and protests
The Associated Press
For all the days of preparation, when war with Iraq finally came yesterday many people across the United States still were plied by the news.
Some took to the streets in protest, others cheered for their soldiers
"I was expecting it. I knew it was coming," said Sandra Hippen of Support Our Country's Military in Sioux Falls, N.D. "But there's no way to prepare for war . . . for the fear."
Like many around the nation, Hippen was just arriving home from work when reports that U.S. fighter-plots had taken off from Saudi Arabia were televised shortly before 7 p.m.
"You could hear the bombing on TV," she said, her voice cracking. "We just looked at each other. The war is here."
It was not a surprise, coming fewer than 24 hours after the expiration of a United Nations deadline under which an American aircraft could land in Kuwait or risk attack by a
U. S.-led multinational force.
In dozens of cities, as dusk passed into dark, people gathered for prayer vigils, marches and rallies, their swells swelling as the news spread
In Washington, across Pennsylvania
Avenue from the White House,
hundreds of protesters demonstrated
in a park before marching through
downtown. "Don't Bag Our Boys"
one sign read.
In San Francisco, minutes after the attack was launched, hundreds of protesters clogged one of the city's downtown arteries, chanting "no blood for oil." Police in the nearby suburb of Alameda raised a drawbridge to halt a band of student demonstrators.
A group of about 200 Oregon activists quickly gathered in a park facing Portland's federal building. A half-hour later, the crowd had doubled.
Kay Reid, 51, joined in singing "Give Peace A Chance" while cradling a candle. She said she was dislucky and then shocked by the military action.
"And the use of language, to say that we are liberating Kuwait, to call this Desert Storm, is repugnant," she said.
Casualties were on the minds of people gathered in living rooms, taverns, shopping malls, office buildings and street corners.
In Nashville, Tenn., Beau Thomas was into his fourth consecutive day of anti-war protest in front of a downed building. Then he learned the attack had started.
"I think it's a horrible, terrible thing. War is immoral," he said. "George Bush has stepped into something and he has no idea of what it
Many said, however, the president's decision was inevitable and
"I thought they waited too damn long," said Jim Freyburger of Seminole, Texas, father of Marine Sgt. Jim Freyburg Jr.
"I think they ought to have started bombing when they told them they would start right after the deadline," said Freyburger, whose son is stationed aboard a warship in the Persian Gulf. I think the attack is the best thing they could have done. I'm not for (or) but (but) this comes with the territory."
Freyburger said an attack was necessary to bring Saddam to justice.
"I hear those Americans crying 'No blood for oil' and it makes me sick." Freyburger said. "This is not a war about oil. This is the same thing that Hitler did. He started small and the next thing you know he wanted the world. This man has to be stopped."
But politics and moral stands were of little comfort to some of those with loved ones in immediate peril.
Victoria Nord of Quincy, Mass., was among them. Her son, Russell, is with a National Guard unit in Saudi Arabia.
"I'm glad (the president) had a restful night last night. I didn't," she said. "I'm glad he's at peace. I'm not."
Congress supports Bush's decision
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Congress that gave President Bush authority to wage war in the Persian Gulf immediately lined up behind his decision to exercise that power, as lawmakers voiced hopes for a quick, decisive victory.
"I believe that we will prevail in a matter of days or weeks," said Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who cited the overwhelming U.S. advantage in weaponry. "Saddam Hussein has made a miscalculation."
Like most other lawmakers who had argued strongly against immediate war authority for Bush just four days earlier, Nunn expressed confidence last night in the U.S. forces and said they would be given all the resources to do the job.
The Senate today was expected to consider a resolution of support for U.S. forces in the Gulf. Republi-
can lawmakers have been vocal about Wyoming said senators had been
called back to Washington for that purpose and to receive briefings on progress in the war.
Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said Bush was giving military commanders a maximum degree of discretion as to how to deploy the forces, an important element in his promise that the conflict would not be another prolonged Vietnam-style war.
In accord with the congressional resolution approved Saturday, the president notified House and Senate leaders 1/2 hours before the attack was made public, certifying to them that all diplomatic avenues to resolve the standoff had been exhausted.
"I am totally satisfied the president has made every effort to exhaust all alternatives before taking this action," said Sen. Ronald D. McCain of Alaska, senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee.
Two U.S. Marine air support personnel scramble under the twin exhausts of an F-18 Hornet fighter at a base in Saudi Arabia.
War sets off U.S. protests
Bombs raining on Baghdad drew thousands of protesters to streets in scores of U.S. cities. Some came in anger, some in sadness. Some burned the flag, some clung to candles in prayer.
Two of the largest and most unruly demonstrations came in San Francisco and New York, where crowds estimated at about 5,000 each lighted bonfires, marched, chanted and carved, gashed "War Gives Us Gas Pains."
In New York, demonstrators rallied outside the United Nations and marched to Times Square. Some protesters asked police, leading to a several arrests.
The Associated Press
"I came out to join this because it is so sad," said Salah Said, 30, of Yemen, a store clerk. "Not only for me and my family but for all of us."
Early today, a car slammed into a group of New York protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, injuring at least seven people, two critically, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Tina Mohrmann. Witnesses said one person fell over the side of the bridge and landed in a construction site.
The car's driver was arrested and
"Peace, not violence," San Francisco protesters shouted at a few rowdy demonstrators in their midst who set a highway patrol car ablaze, causing it to explode. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was closed briefly for the third day by activists who blocked the way.
charged with drunken driving, Mohrmann said.
Seventeen-year-old Ryan Calwell of Seattle was one of those who set fire to an American flag in San Francisco. "Right now, the flag symbolizes the government, not the people," he said.
In the days leading up to the deadline for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait, public opinion polls showed two out of three Americans supported an attack on Iraq. But a USA Today poll Monday found most Americans very worried that many American soldiers might die in such
In Washington, across from the White House, hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday. A sign read: "Don't Bag Our Boys."
About 75 students at the University of Georgia in Athens lugged tents and sleeping bags out for an all-night
peace vigil under a landmark gate that stands for wisdom, justice and moderation.
"Until peace is achieved, this is a peace camp. We're ready to sit here until there's peace in the Middle East," said Patrick Malone, the 40-year-old leader of Students Against War in the Middle East.
Hours before hostilities broke in in the Middle East, club-wielding police in Los Angeles arrested 158 anti-war protesters.
The protest turned tearful as demonstrators learned war had ended.
"The people were just distraught.
"They didn't understand," said demonstrator David Tomlinson.
Twenty to 30 Palestinian students took the lead in a march through downtown Chicago and unfurled a banner declaring, "No Blood for Oil!"
"One-thousand points of death," shouted protesters, recalling President Bush's "1,000 points of light" call for volunteerism.
About 10 counter-demonstrators marched around them, chanting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Israeli woman describes nervousness there
Kansan staff writer
By Eric Nelson
Kahn, a civilian resident of Herzliya, Israel, since 1983, and her family picked up protective gas masks three weeks ago.
With the instruction to break the seal on her gas mask, Lora Kahn realized that now was the time.
"We were told not to open the gas masks," she said. That is, not until she knew what was going on.
"This is the first time the civilian population has been at threat," Kahn said of the conflict. In the past, she said, the American military has targeted toward only the military.
After weeks of preparation, Kahn was awakened by a call from her son in Ottawa, Canada. It was 2:30 a.m. on September 17, and air strike against Iraq had begun.
Kahn said civil defense precautions
solid spots have run regularly on how
to seal and protect a room properly for chemical warfare, a precaution every Israeli home was to have taken.
Schools in Israel were closed yesterday, she said, and no workers except public service workers were expected to report today. Unfortunately for Kahn, her husband, Asher, is a legal adviser for the Ministry of Defense and was called to work in the morning.
Kahn said she was more comfortable about the situation before her husband was called in. Despite it being daylight, she feared possible retaliation by Iraq against Israel. She said that in past wars, Iraq had been known to attack regardless of whether it was night or day.
Kahn and her husband have Western perspectives; she is from England and he is from Montreal. She was a graduate of the air strike would resolve the conflict.
"I don't think for one minute that is it," she said.
Kahn said U.S. citizens had to understand that the conflict with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a Middle Eastern conflict.
"They don't realize they are not dealing with a North American," she said. "The man has not behaved as a teacher." He doesn't care about his population.
Kahn watched President George Bush's address twice and continued to watch information on Israeli television. She was uncertain of what would happen next but said that she would continue to watch television for information while hoping for a quick resolution.
As the long-distance interview con-
cluded last night, Kahn could only sit
on the couch.
"I hope I can talk to you again someday," she said.
Bush proclaims:'We will not fail'
Continued from Page 1
months ago, had defied economic sanctions, threats of force and diplomatic appeals, declaring the oil-rich emirate to be invarceably part of
"Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq." Bush said in an address broadcast nationwide last night, after allied warplanes thundered on to seek out their targets. "It is the liberation of Kuwait."
In the Iraq capital, air raid snires wailed as wave after wave of warplanes filled the starlit sky, and red-and-green tracer fire erupted.
"This feels like we're in the center of hell," said CNN's Bernard Shaw in Baghdad.
Television carried sound reports from Iraq via satellite, but telephone service was cut. American Telephone Corporation had lost communication with Iraq.
At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering promised that Iraq could avoid further punishment by beginning a complete, unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. The pledge came in a private meeting with the Security Council, according to a text of his statement
obtained early today by The Associated Press.
In the United States, anti-war protests, which had grown in intensity in the days leading up to the fighting, grew in numbers and passion with officers. The police dispersed hundreds of demonstrators near the White House.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney,
brief reporters in Washington,
would provide no casualty reports
from the initial attack. But he said
the operation "appears to have gone
very, very well."
Powell and Cheney declined to discuss specific of the operation — even to confirm the types of aircraft involved. But Powell said Iraqi command and control centers were targets of the first wave of aircraft.
Gen. Colin Powell, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the allied offensive met no air resistance from Iraq's air force.
Only the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait participated in the initial attacks, Cheney said, although 28 nations are part of the multinational force confronting Iraq.
French military forces did not take part in the first assault, but a dozen French planes took part in the later attacks. France's defense minister said that French planes were hit by fire but that all returned safely to Saudi Arabia.
In Brussels, envoys of the 16 NATO nations met in emergency session today and said they hoped hostilities could end as soon as possible. But they again warned Iraq that an attack against Turkey — the only ally of Iran — alliance that borders Iraq — is an attack against the entire alliance.
Turkey's prime minister announced early today that the government would ask Parliament for war powers and permission for U.S. use of bases in this country, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The official Soviet news agency Tass, meanwhile, said armed forces in the southern part of the country were put on high alert early today.
The Palestine Liberation Organization called on Moslems and Third World countries to rally to Iraq's support. It denounced the allied attack as "boldfaced and treacherous aggression."
As the United States launched its awesome array of air power against Iraq, congressional lawmakers shocks the conflict would end rapidly.
House Speaker Thomas Foley said the nation "must now pray for a conflict that ends quickly, decisively, and with a minimum loss of life."
In Israel — which Saddam had vowed to make a target if war broke out — an army officer, Brig. Gen. Zeev Livesh, said missiles in western Iraq that could have threatened Israel were hit in the U.S.-led offensive. Nevertheless, the Israeli army today ordered most citizens to stay at home and keep their gas masks ready for a feared chemical attack
Jordan, sandwiched between Iraq and Israel, closed its airspace today. The Amman government has voiced concerns that the U.S. could suffer conflict if Saddam attacks Israel.
In the emirate of Bahrain, Kuwaiti exiles streamed to mosques today to pray for victory.
By unleashing an overnight aerial bombardment, the allies sought to take advantage of the darkness of a clear sky over overwhelming U.S. air superiority.
Military blasts Iraq
included air forces of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Briti-
ain, resulted in no reported U.S. casi­ties or downed U.S. air-­
force aircraft. One of the Pentagon's most senior generals.
Continued from Page 1
"I don't think Saddam Hussein realizes that this will go on for a long, long time," said the general, speaking on condition he not be named. Overall, he added, "The realization really is going very well."
President Bush, in a televised address to the nation hours after the assault began and as daylight
Gen. Colin Powell, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon last week that a U.S. aircraft met no air resistance by Iraq.
The attack opened with a wave of cruise missiles launched from Navy ships in the gulf region, their 1,000-pound warheads probed by Iraqi military installations, said another senior Pentagon official.
Bush said initial reports from the commander of American forces in the region, Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who the assault was going according to plan. The president said targets included Iraqi chemical and nuclear weapons facilities.
broke in the Middle East, said "our troops . . . will not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back."
"Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq — it is the liberation of Kuwait." Bush said.
A key element of the U.S. air assault was the role of Air Force F-15E "Strike Eagle" fighter-attack aircraft, which carries 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons guided to their targets at nighttime by the new LANTIRN guidance system.
The Air Force's radar-evading F-117 stealth bombers and the Navy's A-6 bombers also joined in the battle, the sources said.
Other air assets included radar jammers designed to protect attack jets from enemy detection and fire.