Michigan reacts to strike on Iraq

Thursday, March 20, 2003 | 2:07 a.m.

Brian Doddie supports U.S. military action against Iraq.

But he's also concerned.

"The thing is, what is going to happen afterwards? Our government is supposed to go over there and take over. What's really going to happen?" the 25-year-old civil engineer said Thursday morning while standing in Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Doddie, from Taylor, Mich., was returning from a friend's wedding in Las Vegas.

"To be honest, I was more concerned when we were in Vegas," he said. "It was happening at the time we were leaving."

Asked what he thought of the beginning of the U.S. attack, he said: "I'm kind of for it."

Doddie said he and his friends were in the Excalibur hotel-casino when they got word that the attack had begun Wednesday.

His thoughts were, "Wow. It's happening."

Referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Doddie said, "I hope they do get him, or capture him."

The United States barraged Baghdad Wednesday night with cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam himself and other Iraqi leaders.

The attack came less than two hours after President Bush's deadline of 4 a.m. Baghdad time for Saddam to leave the country.

At about 5:30 a.m., air sirens blared in the Iraqi capital and yellow and white anti-aircraft tracers streaked through the sky. A number of strong explosions could be heard.

Charlene Abernethy, of Acme, Mich., does not support the war.

"Once (Bush) announced it, I had tears in my eyes the entire next day," Abernethy said Thursday. "I'm extremely against it. My daughter and I went to Washington, D.C., Jan. 18 and marched in the protest."

Abernethy said she does not believe Saddam and Iraq represent a legitimate threat to U.S. security. The war, she says, is about U.S. control of Iraqi oil fields.

"How would people in this country feel if they went off to work in the morning and came home to find their home bombed, their children dead. Lots of little babies are going to be killed, little toddlers. It positively makes me sick," she said.

Nichole Gardner also does not support the military campaign in the Middle East.

"I don't think it's needed," the 25-year-old said while waiting for a bus in Detroit Thursday morning. "He didn't get Bin Laden, so I don't think he's going to get Saddam."

"He hasn't really given us any explanation for it," said the senior at Wayne State University.

Charles Judson of Traverse City, Mich., said the attack came as no surprise to him.

"I've sort of been sitting on the fence," Judson said. "I do philosophically support our role in the world (against) terrorism. I'm inclined to support the president in this activity."

Judson said he won't be glued to television coverage of the war, but does plan to watch an hour of so of evening news reports.

"Much like Libya was 10 to 15 years ago, I think the government of Iraq supports terrorist activity in the world," he said.

In Romulus Thursday morning, life at Michigan's largest airport seemed normal by post-Sept. 11, 2001 standards Thursday.

A snaking line of travelers waited to have their identifications checked and pass through security gates operated by the federal Transportation Security Administration.

Ron and Sally McDonald did not learn of the attack until their red-eye flight from California landed in Detroit.

Ron McDonald, a 60-year-old Navy veteran from Merced, Calif., said he and his wife were determined to attend their 6-year-old grandson's birthday celebration, war or no war.

The McDonalds said they were strong supporters of Bush's Iraq policy.

"I feel poorly for the Iraqi people," Ron McDonald said. "But I do not feel poorly for Saddam Hussein. He's a bad person."

"I support President Bush," said Sally McDonald, 58. "I think we're doing the right thing.

"We've kind of lost our standing as a great power, or we never would have had Sept. 11. I think we got a little too complacent."

Andrew Scofield, a gas station clerk in Greenville, Mich., said the United States should be worrying about its own problems.

"We have no business over there," the 25-year-old said. "We need to worry about our own people over here and our own problems in our country.

"Bush is trying to do what his dad couldn't. We went from worrying about Osama Bin Laden and when we couldn't find him, now we're going after Saddam Hussein."