Rita Vihnanek doesn’t agree with President Bush on everything, but she’s lock step with him when it comes to the war on terrorism. She views another terrorist attack as inevitable but says that by fighting back, the U.S. has made itself safer.
“I think when you go into something, you’ve got to stand firm,” Vihnanek said. “You can’t run.”
Vihnanek, 69, said that without the war on terrorism, the U.S. would look defenseless to potential terrorists. After past attacks, she said, the country was too passive–and the attacks kept coming.
“When they hit our ship, the Cole, when they hit the World Trade Center in 1993, we did nothing,” Vihnanek said. “Clinton sat on his kazoo and did nothing.We should have done something.”
She said the sacrifices Americans have made for the war on terrorism are small, and that any civil liberties surrendered are insignificant compared to the greater good.
Vihnanek,who lives in Addison, Ill., immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1954 at 19. She became a citizen several years later and proudly proclaims herself an American.
She said the U.S. has more support worldwide than some people want to admit. The country’s enemies were around before the war on terrorism, and they will remain long after it is over, she said.
But for Vihnanek, things are better. “You adjust to being scared.”
–Jon Yates
`Should have been more diplomatic’
Franklin Wood has no beef with the military. The 87-year-old spent three years training the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and realizes that there are times you have to fight for what you believe in. The war in Iraq, he said, is not one of those times.
“I think it’s useless, lives being taken away,” said Wood, who lives in Maywood, Ill.
Wood said he feels less safe today than before the war.
“We’ve made enemies all over the world,” Wood said. “I think we should have been more diplomatic.”
Wood, who was born in Georgia, moved to Chicago after he was discharged from the military in 1946.
He worked for 25 years as a therapist at Edward Hines veterans hospital then taught for 10 years before he retired.
The way Wood sees it, the U.S. has few friends left, making it a prime target for future attacks.
“Some of the countries that were friendly to us, there’s questions in their minds now,” Wood said.
He calls the war with Iraq a grudge war carried out by President Bush because his father was unable to oust Saddam Hussein when the elder Bush was president.
He views the loss of life as senseless and said the lack of support from other countries has hurt the U.S.
In many ways, he said, the situation is similar to World War II, when Japanese pilots would launch suicide attacks as part of their military strategy. But today, the country’s enemies seem more fanatic, Wood said.
“They really have carried it to another level.”
–Jon Yates
