A Question of Resolve: Americans Express Support, Yet Uneasiness
The crisis is about interests, not ideals. It has purpose but lacks passion. It inspires uneasiness in the stock market but only modest moral outrage.</br></br>President Bush has implicitly compared Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler, a simile that has caught the national ear. But the enemy also threatens Middle Eastern oil, a resource so important that the United States is willing to fight to protect it.</br></br>Hut for those who fought the last American war, this confrontation with Iraq in the Persian Gulf is likely to resolve itself into a "If itÛªs for a genuine national-security reason, then we should be there," said Bill Gay of Marlinton, W.Va. "But you donÛªt want to see the politicians mess everything up. The thing that bothered me most about Vietnam was that we fought so long and poured so many billion dollars down the drain, and we got nothing from it. If you fight, you want to fight to win."</br></br>Gay was one of many Americans who spoke about the crisis late Inst week with Washington Post reporters and special correspondents who interviewed people from Alaska and Texas, from Min-See MOOD, A31, Col 1</br></br>Prospective recruits have shown littlo fresh interest In tho Midoast, said Staff SkI. Clarence Moment, right, interviewing Patrick Matthews, 10, in Now York.