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stouffville residents hear pleas for peace war enzodimatteo staff reporter the reality of war seeped a little deeper into the hearts and minds of whitchurchtouffville residents last weekend- s at a somewhat surreal public meet ing more than 150 area residents gath- ered at the markham civic centre satur day to hear the views of an expert panel on the escalating war in the persian gulf v three york regional police officers and at least one plain clothes officer kept an eye on me proceedings which were punctuated by impassioned speeches lively debates and some tears the heated political debate that domi nated the meeting however was over powered by the more emotional calls for world peace and opposing concerns about the lack of support for canadian troops in the gulf my younger brothers didnt join the armefprces to attack anyone or die because of bur leaders ineptitude said gormley resident kimberly sutherland with her young son m her amis cana- das international reputation has always been one of kpeacekeeper and thats the role we should be playing now jacquie cushing dill manager of the markham peace garden arid an oppo nent of the war ced for the withdraw al of troops from the gulf nilil shearman a machine gunner and instructor in the canadian armed forces spoke from a different point of view ibs commentsvdehyered in quiet even tones heldjhe audiences rapt attention tma canadian soldjer and i teach people takilh im angry with the peace activists spitting at and burning our flag what canada is doing is a very good thing and our boys deserve our sup port members of the audience approached to shake the soldiers hand as he made his way back through the crowd to his seat terry goodwin a former air force bomber pilot said the sentiments being expressed at the meeting are not unlike those heard in canada at the outbreak of world warh the argument being used then was why pull british chestnuts out of the fire everyone wants peace said goodwin but at any price that sends the wrong message markham whitchurchstduffville tory mp bill attewell who called the meeting to hear residents concerns wascriticized for not holding a meeting to gauge residents views before the fed eral government decided to go to war but attewell said a decision by the allied forces not to go to war after the united nationsimposed deadline for economic sanctions svould have sent the wrong message to aggressive nations for decades to come however zafarbangash the editor the the crescent international a markhainbased muslim newspaper said the allied forces have been forced into the war by the us a country once aligned with iraq against iran t where was the united states when hussein was gassing his own people andwhen he was using gas against iran in983 he said that according to his sources in the middle east therehave already been 156000 to 400000 civilian deaths in iraq this war wont bring stability to the region said bangash if anything will see the middle east in perpetual turmoil ben prossin a leading member of metros jewish community said there comes a time tofish or cut bait in his support for the allied cause prossin said hussein is trying to dis- tract attention from his invasiqnof kuwait by raising the question of israels occupation of the palestinian west bank and gaza strip he said the iraqi leader is trying to obscure the truthi iknow it may sound like rightwing rhetoric said the admitted political moderate but we cannot afford a repeat of the 1930s when the democra cies of the world caved in to the same type of terror kimberly sutherland of gormley made an emotion allycharged plea for peace as she held her young photostevesomerville son alexander sutherland attended mp bill attewells town hall forum on the persian gulf war