Cheers and fears as Americans see war begin

Anxious Americans expressed mixed feelings today as they watched the first shots of the long-awaited war with Iraq.

Across the nation people stopped as news of the opening missile strike on Baghdad was reported on TV networks.

“I really hate that we had to do this,” said former marine Tom Hinton, 68, who saw the events unfold on a giant screen in Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It worries me. This chemical warfare is something different. But we’ve got to get rid of this dictator, there’s no question about it.”

New Yorker Vince Diamonde, 55, welcomed the attack as part of the war against terrorism.

“I’m all for it. You had to live here to understand it,” he said as he walked near Ground Zero with his wife and son. “We lost everything you can imagine.”

Recent opinion polls suggested that more than seven out of 10 Americans supported the war.

But many opposed the conflict, which is the first preventive war in US history and the first time the nation has attacked without being struck first.

Lucius Walker, a pastor of Salvation Baptist Church in Brooklyn and executive director of New York-based Pastors for Peace, said it was a sad day.

He said: “Our president is in violation of international principles.”

Several American news networks had counted down the final hours of President George Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

MSNBC even featured a clock in the corner of the screen marking off the hours and minutes until the time was up and the nation braced itself for the launch of military action.

Two hours and 20 minutes later, at 10.20pm local time, bar staff at Ryan’s bar in Manhattan switched the TV from an ice hockey game to CNN for patrons to hear President Bush confirm the war had started.

A basketball game between the New Orleans Hornets and the New York Knicks was stopped to allow the crowd to watch the president’s address on big-screen TVs. Many fans stood and applauded before play resumed.

But drinkers at the Rialto bar in downtown Portland, Oregon, jeered as the President spoke.

Patron Hank Lazenby said: “How many people are going to die? What does this have to do with the Twin Towers in New York?

“It’s a huge distraction that is going to cost thousands of lives.”

Ghazi Khankan, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the start of the war “a sad moment“.

“I just want to pray for peace to come back. I was hoping that Mr Bush would follow the teachings of Jesus Christ – which is peace, not war.”