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Local residents react to hostilities with support for troops, concerns about mission. Date published: 3/20/2003
When President Bush came on TV late last night at J. Brian's Tap Room in downtown Fredericksburg, a crowd of 21st-birthday revelers fell silent. Someone stopped Bruce Springsteen from singing about "Glory Days" on the jukebox, while someone else turned up the volume on the set. As Bush spoke about the beginning of a war, one man said quietly, "He's doing it." No one applauded once the president finished speaking, but no one protested, either. Someone said, "Hear, hear." Standing at the bar, Mary Washington College junior Tim Kuzmuk of McLean said he is all for invading Iraq and doing whatever it takes to remove Saddam Hussein from power. "He broke his treaty," the 21-year-old said. "It's for our freedom--it's for everybody's freedom." Kuzmuk's comments were echoed by retired Air Force Col. Dave Ellis, who watched Bush speak from his home in the Artillery Ridge subdivision in Spotsylvania County. Ellis helped oversee about 85,000 prisoners of war and 10,000 civilian internees during Operation Desert Storm a decade ago. That conflict saw Iraq driven out of Kuwait, but left Hussein in power. Ellis said he hopes U.S. forces finish the job this time. "We need to take this guy out and take him behind the shed and give him the spanking he deserves," he said. "I had hoped we'd be able to avoid this war, but it was something forced on us. But I know in the end, it will be something we can be proud of." The attack, which the Bush administration had been threatening for weeks, did not come as a surprise. Fredericksburg United Methodist Church held a communion service last night that included a special prayer for the 16 church members who are active-duty military or reservists who are in the Middle East. "Our prayers are with the men and women of the armed forces and the civilians of Iraq, who have been living under oppression," the Rev. Larry Lenow, pastor of the church, said last night. "We're all united in prayer at this time." At J. Brian's, Bush's speech interrupted a friendly argument about the imminent war among 39-year-old Bill Strother of Stafford County, his girlfriend, Monika Bork of Lörach, Germany, and her friend Anita Egle of Bad Säckingen.
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