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New York Daily News Uneasy G.I.s speak their peace By RICHARD SISK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, March 16th, 2003 AL JABER AIR BASE, Kuwait - Many of the U.S. troops poised for battle here would give peace a chance if they had the choice. Doubts about going to war can be heard openly in conversations among the troops gathered in tents at night and in their random talks about their duties with a reporter. Several military chaplains at this fast-growing launch pad for air strikes also said airmen, sailors, Marines and soldiers assigned here have shared the same misgivings in private sessions. Surveys are impossible and, to be sure, the kick-butt attitude appears to be dominant. But even those most eager for combat tend to allow that their disagreeing buddies have valid points to make about what they sarcastically call a "do-over war," meaning that they would be finishing a job left undone by then-President George Bush in 1991. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Barber, a Catholic chaplain, said "it's a problem of conscience" for many of the 7,000 Marines and sailors in his field ministry. 'The bigger picture' Barber told of a fighter pilot who sought counsel "not just about his personal fears, but about the prospect of killing innocent civilians. And then there's that Iraqi conscript who bears us no ill will. His crime would be that he was born Iraqi. "For all the troops, "The answer has to come from within themselves," Barber said. "We have to look at the bigger picture of why we're here. Perhaps a greater evil will come about from inaction." Barber said the political anti-war message from the French and others and the moral anti-war stance of Pope John Paul have resonated with many. "I've been surprised at how much sympathy there is with the position of the Pope and the archbishop [Edward O'Brien, head of all Catholic chaplains]," Barber said. "Even some of the officers are wondering - if it was up to them, they wouldn't have this war," Barber said. "That's why war is such a bad thing." Senior noncommissioned officers also said months of training and waiting for the go order in the desert have left some of the troops on edge. "The attitude is that if we're gonna go do this thing, let's go do it and get it the hell over with," said one noncommissioned officer. "I tell you, guys are getting ready to blow at each other over petty crap." But, historically, the troops get antsiest and the chaplains get busiest just before action, said Capt. Rick Reaves, a National Baptist Air Force chaplain. "Numerically, all our worship services have probably more than doubled" in recent weeks, Reaves said. "That speaks to the sense of reflection" among the troops, he said. "They want to reflect inwardly prior to moving north." 'They know what to do' Reaves said he also sensed "a higher anxiety level from one day to the next, an ebb and flow," depending on the snippets of political and diplomatic scuttlebutt that drift down to the ranks. But Reaves said the troops are all volunteers who understand that "now they're here and they know what to do and how to respond. When the time comes, they'll perform what they've been taught and trained to do." Maj. Gary Breig, a Catholic Air Force chaplain, said the difficulty some of the troops have in grasping the justification for war may come from the nature of the looming conflict. "It's different than Desert Storm," he said. In 1991, "We were taking power away from a country that was exerting it over another. Now, we're taking power away from that invading country itself." The ultimate question for many of the troops here, and for military personnel through the ages, is the same question that Air Force Capt. Joshua Narrowe, a Jewish chaplain, constantly asks of himself: "How can I support, as a rabbi, an organization whose primary function is to kill people?" The answer Narrowe is still struggling to find comes along these lines: "We don't fight like our enemy. We don't kill civilians and we don't kill to kill." "Sometimes war is necessary, but it's also sad," Narrowe said. "Probably, that Iraqi conscript is not a bad guy. We need, in our prayers, to pray for him as well." --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
