Vets doubt impact on strife

By Justin Vellucci  |  Tribune Review, Pittsburgh, PA  |  View story in the original context
PUBLISHED: December 31, 2006

When Iraqi war veteran Joseph Kramer returns to military duty Jan. 14, the Stanton Heights man expects to return to a country far different from where he served from February 2003 to February 2004.

While a bitter insurgency and sectarian violence have come to define the war since Kramer's departure, he doubts Saddam Hussein's execution Saturday will stem fighting as the conflict nears its four-year anniversary.

"It made very little difference to me -- I mean, I don't feel vindicated in any way as a soldier for what I feel to be the real mess we're in," said Kramer, 31. "To those whose family members have died because of the hands and orders of Saddam, I'm sure it's some comfort to them. I think even most of those people would tell you that they would much rather see a stable, secure, prosperous Iraq than a dead dictator."

Kramer does not appear to be alone. Other area veterans yesterday welcomed Saddam's death but questioned if it would yield any positive developments in the war.

"This is a guy who was hated. At a moral level, he was despised by the world and he should be," said Jon Soltz, 29, a Pittsburgh native and Iraq War veteran who co-founded VoteVets.Org.

"But the insurgency is much different -- it's a war of national self-determination, it's a war of 'Who's going to control the country next?'" Soltz said. "Saddam Hussein really has very little to do with the future of Iraq. I mean, he is the past. And, now, he is very much the past."

"From a positive side, there's a finality now ... Saddam's not coming back," said Doug Hottle, 47, a Mt. Lebanon lawyer who served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. "I'd be much more enthusiastic about the future of Iraq if they arrested Moqtada al-Sadr, put him in jail and started closing down his militia than what they've done to Saddam Hussein."

Al-Sadr, an influential Shiite cleric, has his own militia -- the Mahdi army -- that has clashed with U.S. troops.

Paul Kengor, who teaches Middle East politics at Grove City College, said Saddam's death could reduce the number of politically timed insurgent attacks in Iraq. But he also stressed Saddam's execution, carried out in stark contrast to trials that could have dragged on for years, sends a strong message.

"An advantage of this is it refocuses the big success that we've had," Kengor said Saturday. "This reminds us that, by golly, we got rid of Saddam Hussein. That's a major accomplishment."