In the mind of Samantha Sheldon, there is no doubt: Iraq and Al Qaeda are joined at the hip.
“The way Al Qaeda and the Iraqi military under Saddam were so similar in the way they treated people and the way their leaders acted, they had to be assisting each other. And even now when we’re trying to help the Iraqis, they hate us just as much as Al Qaeda does. For me, they had to be working together,” said Sheldon, who lives in Janesville, Wis.
“It’s like a puzzle, and the pieces fit perfectly.”
A junior studying public relations at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, Sheldon, 23, said she understands how people can differ on the matter because there is “no contract or physical evidence.” This is a question of belief and interpretation that can easily conflict.
“Some people see the links, some don’t . . . I just started putting them together,” she said. Sheldon shares the anger of many Americans over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the implied condoning of them by Saddam Hussein.
“In a way, he attacked our country, but it was Al Qaeda who flew the planes,” she said.
But Sheldon said she does not support the war against Iraq, despite her belief that Iraq and Al Qaeda are linked.
“I was against the war. I’m still against it. I see the death count every day, and the body bags keep coming back. We need to get out of there,” she said. Her best friend’s brother-in-law was just sent to Iraq by the Army.
–Tim Jones
NOT BUYING IT
Terrorist tie was too easy an excuse
Jose Tijerina served in the Navy for 20 years, as did his two sons. He supported going to war against Iraq and said Saddam Hussein “shouldn’t have been captured–he should have been shot.”
But Tijerina, 68, of Janesville, Wis., doesn’t buy the argument that Iraq was supporting Al Qaeda. That claim is far too convenient for a war that cannot escape the tar of politics, he said.
“If you want to take the sucker out, go do it,” he said, referring to Hussein, “but don’t give me all this other stuff about weapons of mass destruction, Al Qaeda and an immediate threat to the United States.
“He [President Bush] just wanted to finish the job for his dad.”
Clad in blue overalls, Tijerina runs an Indian arts and artifacts store with his wife, Helen, in downtown Janesville. He paints the Stars and Stripes on deer skulls and turkey feathers. Helen weaves baskets and makes hats out of gourds.
Going to war was the right decision, he said. Hussein had to be “taken out for humanitarian purposes. The man was brutal . . . he had to go.”
Tijerina describes himself as neither Republican nor Democrat. He readily concedes an allegiance to cynicism.
“I listen to all the rhetoric on both sides,” he said. “I’m very skeptical about things nowadays, whenever anybody in power tells us things.”
–Tim Jones
