Anti-war sentiment prominent at Bangor forum

BANGOR – Both Dexter Kamilewicz and Ron Blanchard have sons serving in the Middle East.

Both understandably have a keen interest in the Iraq war – its origins, its progress, its outcome.

On Wednesday, at a Bangor forum on the war, the two men – despite their similarities – sent very different messages to the event’s host, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine.

Kamilewicz, of Orrs Island, called the Bush administration duplicitous in its justification of the war, and urged Congress to oppose any more funding for the conflict.

“We do support the soldiers over there for what they do. But they don’t want to be over there doing what our country wants them to do right now,” said Kamilewicz, whose son is serving in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad. “It is a crime.”

Blanchard, of Brewer, has a son on the Syrian border. This father’s message to Michaud was simple: “Stay the course.”

“I take great displeasure to any congressman or senator that talks defeatism and treason,” Blanchard said. “Support the troops. See it through. There’s only one end and that’s victory.”

If the exchange between Blanchard and Kamilewicz suggests that there was equal representation among the war’s supporters and opponents at the 11/2 hour forum, it shouldn’t.

While Kamilewicz’s speech drew loud applause from the more than 100 people at the former Bangor Theological Seminary campus, Blanchard’s drew just a smattering from the largely anti-war crowd.

And Blanchard’s speech drew several responses from subsequent speakers, many of whom argued for a swift end to the war.

“It is time for our leaders to stop staying the course, and bring back our soldiers,” said Pam Person of Orland.

The evening forum, requested of Michaud by a group of his constituents, took place amid a slight public relations bounce for the president’s handling of the Iraq war, according to a Zogby International poll released Wednesday.

A slight majority – 51 percent – said they now either strongly or somewhat support the war in Iraq, while 49 percent said they did not. That 51 percent is unchanged from a poll last week amid that country’s parliamentary elections, which were conducted with little violence and high turnout.

A Zogby poll taken the first week of December showed 49 percent believed the war was worth it.

The Bangor forum on the war was the second held in Maine. Last summer, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, held a similar event in Portland.

Several speakers at the Bangor event urged Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both R-Maine, to hold similar forums.

Wednesday’s forum was moderated by Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.