December 6, 2005

StreetTalk

by Carol Rosen

Recently Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine who was decorated for his service in the Korean and Vietnam wars, called for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. President Bush praised Murtha for his patriotism but said that he did not want U.S. troops to come home “without a victory.” What do you think?
(Asked at Kirkwood Plaza)

“I think there’s more to it than we realize with President Bush, and he has his own agenda. But I would like to see the troops come home now.”

Julie Cooper, 45
Campbell
Credit worker


“We should finish what we started. I don’t think anyone is right or wrong. But the hoopla around the war has been blown all out of proportion. Besides, if we weren’t in a war with Iraq, we’d be in a war with someone else, we always seem to be in the middle.”

Dawn Worswick, 30
San Jose
Homemaker


“I think both of them contain elements of the truth. Congressman Murtha is saying he wants to see a phased withdrawal [of our soldiers] without specifying what the phases would be. Bush said in essence that he would do a phased withdrawal based on specific events. Murtha’s proposal is a more certain type of withdrawal, while Bush has an idea that would take a long time. If I had to say which was right, I’d go for Murtha being more right than wrong because as long as we delay moving out of Iraq, the Iraqi’s will say ‘Let the American’s do it.’ But if we let them know that we’re getting out, they have to get ready to take care of the situation, which I like.”

Chris Lianides, 78
Campbell
Retired


“I think we need to do something different than what President Bush is doing. Congressman Murtha started up a questioning period to decide what we need to do. But I don’t know what the right answer is.”

Carol Gogstad, 66
Campbell
Retired


“First of all I think that instead of putting down and ridiculing President Bush, the American people need to pray that he makes the right decision.”

Cathie Ely, 49
Campbell
City of Campbell


“In my opinion, I think they should bring our troops home. Too many of our soldiers are getting killed, and I don’t see them making progress over there.”

Inez Carr, 53
Campbell
Stanford Hospital unit secretary


“In my opinion the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Our soldiers need to come home, but we can’t overreact and do something [about bringing them home] on the spot. There needs to be a plan.”

Carol Crown, 57
Santa Clara
HR team leader


“I didn’t agree with the war to begin with, but I don’t know if it’s right to just dump the people now. Innocent people die every day. If we leave, will it be any better? Those people have been fighting for thousands of years, if we stay there, I doubt anything will change all that much.”

Pat Anderson, 50+
Campbell
Accounting