10 MFSO/GSFSO families plus children were present and heard at this
hearing. It’s been making the news and the front page of our paper.

Torn by war and a resolution
A nonbinding state proposal backing a troop pullout puts Oregon families in opposite corners

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
JULIE SULLIVAN
The Oregonian

SALEM — The two mothers have more in common than most.

Both had Oregon boys who grew tall, donned uniforms and deployed to Iraq. Both of their sons were in Humvees when roadside bombs exploded. Both died.

But they took opposite sides Monday at an emotional hearing on a legislative resolution to urge Congress to bring the troops home. The meeting, which drew more than 70 people from across the state, was a window into the growing public turmoil over the Iraq war.

The Oregon House will hold another hearing next week before bringing the debate to the floor, where the nonbinding resolution is expected to pass. Oregon joins nearly 20 other states considering resolutions or letters to Congress opposing increasing troops or calling for their withdrawal.

Although state measures pack no punch, the action underscores polls that show the unpopularity of the war. At a Monday news conference on global warming, Gov. Ted Kulongoski decried the lack of a “straightforward conversation about what is America’s national interest in continuing in Iraq.

“It surely cannot be about weapons of mass destruction or regime change or bringing democracy into the Middle East. There has to be some other reason we’re doing this, And I think ultimately it’s about the very topic we’re talking about today,” Kulongoski said, pounding his fist on the lectern. “It’s about oil.”

The resolution is sponsored by 24 House and Senate Democrats and Portland independent Avel Gordly. It urges President Bush not to increase troops and asks Congress to freeze spending and begin a pullout by Aug. 1.

A legislator who served as deputy commander of special forces in Iraq in 2004 proposed an amendment pushing back the exit strategy date and adopting the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations.

“My first reaction (to the resolution) is let’s not do it, but if we’re going to do it, let’s make sure it’s right,” said Rep. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas.

The committee took no vote on his amendment or the resolution, waiting until next week.

In the crowded Elections Ethics and Rules Committee room, military veterans, ministers and peace activists spoke of the billions spent and thus lost to schools, homeland security and health care.

But it was the families whose words moved the room.

Michelle DeFord bowed her head as her husband, Steve, spoke of their son, David W. Johnson, killed while serving with the Oregon Army National Guard in 2004.

“If our son could speak today, he would tell you . . bring my buddies home, now!” Steve DeFord said.

But Shawna Hill, whose son Ryan Hill died five weeks ago, said that her son was distressed by such words, saying it emboldened the insurgents and made the troops feel abandoned.

“His biggest fear was not being hurt or killed, but that they would not be given what they needed or allowed to finish the mission,” she said, weeping.

Rep. Kim Thatcher, who sat supporting Hill, a constituent, began to cry, too. “I’m afraid we might be sending the wrong message.” said Thatcher, R-Keizer. “And that we need to be giving them (the troops) the tools they need to succeed”

Adele Kubein of Benton County described her daughter as being permanently disabled after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq.

“We used to climb mountains together, and now we cannot walk around the block. She wakes screaming from dreams of blood and spends a day every week in a psychologist’s office so she can face the crowds in a grocery store or drive on the street without losing her temper or her mind.”

The mother of a twice-deployed Marine, who is facing a third deployment, fired back at legislators who have said that the Iraq war was not a state matter.

“How dare you imply that my child’s fate and the Oregonians who have lost their lives, the countless wounded and the families disrupted are not a matter worthy of action?” said Mary Geddry of Coquille.

With a son serving in Iraq, Maggie Pondolfino of Portland said that coming home each day, she dreads a military van “that will bring me horrific news. . . . Then I run into the house believing that if I can get there and close the door, before they see me, then I’m safe and have protected my son.

“As foolish and superstitious as I know this is, I cannot stop myself.”

Staff writer Michelle Cole and researcher Lynne Palombo of The Oregonian contributed to this report.

Julie Sullivan: 503-221-8068, juliesullivan@news.oregonian.com

©2007 The Oregonian