By Tom Davidson
SHENANGO VALLEY — In Vietnam, Lackawannock Township resident Jack Gerlach was one of the Marines tasked with bringing home the dead.
The 58-year-old truck mechanic remembers that after he came home from the war he bounced a young David W. Wallace III on his knee.
Sgt. Wallace, a 25-year-old Sharpsville native who also served in the Marine Corps, was killed Jan. 26 by an improvised explosive device in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
“That hit me pretty hard,” Gerlach said.
Hours before President Barack Obama ended speculation about America’s role in Afghanistan with a speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Gerlach was among the folks at the Wheatland American Legion who said he supported a troop surge.
Gerlach said Obama may be missing the mark by undercutting commander on the ground Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s September request for 40,000 troops by 10,000.
“I think they should (send) what the commanders want,” Gerlach said.
Jim Weiser of Wheatland agreed. A 40-year-old “soon-to-be-student” who was laid off from Sharon Tube, Weiser said not finishing the job in Afghanistan would damage America’s standing as a superpower.
When McChrystal asked for 40,000 troops, Obama should have sent 45,000, Weiser said. He served in the first Gulf War and remembered how President George H.W. Bush delegated execution of that operation to Colin Powell and Gen. H. Norman Swartzkopf.
“Let the military do what they’re trained to do,” Weiser said.
Low-balling a surge could be likened to a bar manager who under-orders beer against the advice of the bartenders who know the business, Weiser said.
“That’s being simplistic,” he said. “I know it’s more complex than that.”
The decisions about America’s strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq shouldn’t be shaped by politics, Weiser said.
“I do believe Obama’s doing the right thing,” Cathy Carney, 55, of Wheatland said.
She noted the history of failed wars in Afghanistan, which in the 1980s turned back an invasion by Soviet forces with covert help from the U.S.
It’s time for Russia and China to step up in the military actions in central Asia.
“If Russia and the U.S. and China get together they’ll squeeze them,” Ms. Carney said.
“I think he’s (Obama’s) trying to hedge his bet,” she said of Obama’s decision to limit the number of troops send in the surge.
Obama “needs to do what he has to do to get it done,” Leonard Franklin, 64, of Youngstown, said.
A retired steelworker, Franklin said neglecting the battle in Afghanistan might bring the war to the U.S. homeland.
“If they don’t stay on top of them (al-Qaida) they’ll be over here,” Franklin said.
Hermitage home health nurse Mollie Lyon said the decision should have been made sooner.
“He (Obama) should have had more troops over there months ago,” Ms. Lyon said.
She questioned the timing of the announcement and said wondered how it fit into the administration’s push for health care reform.
An “elderly gentleman” who wouldn’t provide his name shared his thoughts while leafing through a Civil War book at the Community Library of the Shenango Valley.
“Unless we instituted some kind of a blitzkrieg, I don’t think we’re going to be effective,” he said. “He’s (Obama’s) coming in to this late.”
