War Jitters : From ‘I Hope We Go to War’ to ‘Let Mothers Make the Decision,’ Views Run Gamut in O.C.

When Ralph Maciel suddenly died of a heart attack last summer, his 22-year-oldson and apprentice took over Ralph’s Barber Shop in Huntington Beach--where you can still get a haircut for only six bucks, no appointment necessary.

Ray Maciel frequently applies a straightedge to sideburns of men three times his age--clientele once faithful to his father and now to him.

“I try not to get into political arguments because everybody has a different point of view and I could lose all my customers,” said Maciel, a friendly fellow who trims dozens of heads a day.

But he would admit this much after Wednesday’s deadlock in Geneva: “We’ve given Hussein a couple of chances. I think it’s time for us to go in and show him that we’re true to our word.”

One of his old-timers, Hank Gargano, agreed. “Baker said that he didn’t make any progress, so I suppose we might have a war--if you can call it a war,” said the Anaheim resident, 72, a retired salesman. “I think it will be done from the air, like we did to Mr. Kadafi (when the U.S. bombed Libya in 1986). That sure did hush Mr. Kadafi up.”

From barbershops to beauty salons to taxicabs, people in Orange County over the past few days have been talking about little else but war. And their sentiments, like those represented in opinion polls and in Congress, ran the gamut.

World War II veteran Stanley Greenwood, 73, of Huntington Beach, believes that the unproductive discussion with Aziz means military action against Iraq is probably right around the corner. “We can’t negotiate with this guy (Hussein),” said the retired city employee. “He’s a crackpot.”

Otto Gruber, 73, a retired clergyman, believes that “sometimes war is the only answer.”

“If we’d taken steps against Hitler earlier, we wouldn’t have had a crisis of the gigantic proportions that we did,” said the Irvine resident, who served as a chaplain during World War II. “You can’t just withdraw to your own borders and let everyone do what they want to do.”

Gruber harbors mild hope that Hussein will surrender Kuwait before Tuesday. But the person next in line to undergo Maciel’s scissors expressed no such optimism.

“Definitely I think we’re going to war,” said Jerry Lindler, 49, a production supervisor in Huntington Beach. “Saddam is insane, and we’re going to have to do something about him.”

Lindler served in the U.S. Air Force in the early ‘60s but never saw active duty. “Vietnam was a senseless war, I believe,” he said. “However, I think we’re justified in what we’re doing in the Middle East.”

He predicted war would come sooner rather than later, dismissing reports that the U.S. military is not yet ready. “I think that’s a ploy to catch Saddam off guard,” Lindler said.

Ralph’s is the kind of old-fashioned barbershop where customers such as David Felbob plop down in front of the mirror and say, “Chop it off, man.”

In Felbob’s view, invading Iraq is the United States’ best recourse. “Personally, I hope we do go to war to teach Hussein a lesson,” said the 44-year-old government employee. “We need to set a precedent here, to make an example out of him.”

Robert Parra, a 32-year-old Marine Corps reservist, expects to be called to duty any day now. “I think we’re going to war,” he said. “I’m almost certain it’s going to be soon after the 15th.”

He requested a stylish cut--short on the sides, full on the top. “I was going to get a regulation (haircut), but then I decided there’s no sense in that until I get a letter in the mail,” he commented.

Two-year-old Chetarra climbed onto her dad’s lap as he sat in the barber’s chair. “I don’t like the idea of leaving my family to go to the Middle East,” Parra said, “but it’s something that has to be done.”

Robin Bowen sat on the sidelines as his two red-headed boys had their cowlicks pared by Maciel and assistant barber Arthur Castillo. “I worry about it (the Middle East crisis) every day,” Bowen said. “It’s the only reason I watch television--to hear the latest news.”

“We’re in a no-win situation. We can defeat Hussein, but we’ll lose the rest of the Arab world,” said Bowen, 50, a maintenance manager recently retired from the military.

Bowen, who fought in Vietnam, clings to the hope that Hussein will retreat: “He’s no fool. It will come down to the line, but peace might be negotiated. Maybe he’ll start to pull out his troops. It will be harder for Bush to justify invading once Hussein starts withdrawing.

“Of course, I’m not privy to either side’s battle plans,” Bowen allowed. “If we do attack, I think it will be right after Jan. 15. I won’t like it, but I’ll support it 100%.”

As he bid Maciel farewell, Bowen joked, “See you in Baghdad.”

“I’d go if I had to,” said Maciel--who is, after all, young enough for the draft. “I’d cry on the plane all the way over, but I’d go. Think they could use a barber over there?”

But at the Aida Grey Salon in South Coast Plaza last weekend, not one woman believed that U.S. and Iraqi soldiers would be exchanging bullets next week.

“You want a ballpark guess?” asked El Toro resident June Munce, 70, a retired kindergarten teacher. “I don’t think we’ll go to war. I have the utmost confidence in Bush. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I believe we’ll reach a compromise.”

What if that compromise involves relinquishing to Hussein Kuwait’s disputed oil field?

“Let him have it,” Munce laughed. “With my blessing.”

Marla South, her sister, mother and aunt, had converged upon the upscale salon for a luxurious “day of beauty”--Christmas gifts bestowed upon them by their husbands. She had finished her facial, and now awaited her make over.

“(The Middle East crisis) is hitting home because I’m running into people who are packing up and going to Saudi Arabia,” said the 36-year-old fashion instructor. “I just took my son’s Boy Scout troop to a pizza parlor, and the pizza maker--this neat guy who has a lot of fun with the kids--said he’s leaving next week.

“But I have a lot of faith in our government. I don’t think anyone wants to go to war--not even Iraq. I think they’ll negotiate a settlement.”

Her mother expressed a similar rosy outlook. “There will be more talks, more negotiations, more delaying,” said Burma Bolles, 61, a Torrance housewife. “I would be very surprised if (the U.S.) started a military action.”

“Oh my gosh, I don’t know,” said Irvine businesswoman Terry Schultz, 40. “I just don’t know . . . I think probably they’ll find a way for everybody to avoid war while saving face.”

“A few months ago, I approved of sending U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia, but this has dragged on too long,” said Schultz, as a manicurist buffed her nails. “We can’t leave our troops there forever. I think we should just pull out.”

Ann Franchina, now an American citizen, grew up in Germany during World War II. “I saw bombs falling down on defenseless women and children,” said the 64-year-old Irvine resident. “I don’t want to see Americans die (in the Middle East), nor do I want to see Iraqi children die.

“I object to our presense on Saudi soil,” Franchina said. “Who does Bush think he is--policeman for the world? If the Arabs want to fight among themselves, let them do it. That’s my opinion, though what kind of power do I have?”

Kathy Bell, 44, also opposes war with Iraq--”but then, I have a 19-year-old son.”

The Costa Mesa community relations consultant believes that President Bush is too pragmatic to risk the high death toll that could result from a battle in the Persian Gulf. “I think he knows that he could forget a second term if he invades,” she said.

“What would be the reason (for war)? Is oil reason enough to send our sons and brothers off to die? Or are we really there to protect a smaller country?

“I wonder what would happen if we got a group of mothers together to make these decisions. I bet that we could come up with a peaceful solution.”

Taxicab driving requires a good deal of patience. At John Wayne Airport, drivers must wait their turn in a long, slow line before they can enter the passengers’ arrival area.

Fortunately, Coast Yellow Cab driver Taqiddin Taha is a patient man. Last Sunday afternoon, he could go for 45 minutes a sitting without once glancing at his watch--all the while gabbing nonstop with his visitor about his homeland, the Middle East.

Taha emigrated from Jordan to the United States in 1973 at the age of 18. An articulate man who speaks with only a scant accent, he might at first seem to be completely “Americanized.” He looks somewhat like actor Al Brooks--handsome in an ordinary way, with short curly hair and a neat mustache.

But beneath his Western appearance, Taha remains devoted to his roots and to his religion. He carries in his trunk a “prayer rug.” Two or three times a work shift he pulls off the road and kneels on his tapestry carpet--then touches his forehead to ground, silently giving thanks to his God.

“Practicing Islam here in the United States is difficult,” he said. “People don’t understand it; they think it’s weird. In general, they think of Moslems as bloodthirsty terrorists. But it is really against the principles of Islam to kill innocent people.”

His American-born wife converted to the Muslim faith. They live in Garden Grove with their three children. “We try to be good Moslems,” Taha said.

Especially now, with tensions high, Taha encounters prejudice from his customers. “A couple of weeks after Hussein invaded Kuwait, I had a guy challenge me to a fight. He was a three-piece-suit man. He had a business in Kuwait and it was suffering, and he blamed me. First he paid me my fare,” Taha chuckled, “and then he asked if I wanted to step outside my cab.”

Taha declined to have his photograph run with this article for fear that anti-Arab fanatics might be incited by his opinions. And some of his opinions are, indeed, less than popular.

“For Moslems, it is a sin to have borders between them,” he said. “Before World War I, the Arab world was one united nation, and someday it again must be a united nation.”

However, Taha does not condone Hussein’s violent method of knocking down those borders: “He is so far removed from being a good Moslem that it’s sickening. He will be responsible for his actions come the day of judgment.”

Finally, Taha received his signal to approach the terminal. “I need to go to Cal Poly in Pomona, please,” requested his first customer.

Pay dirt for the cab driver.

What would he be doing at Cal Poly?

“I’m attending a conference,” the man answered. “I’m director of the Institute of Politics at John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University.”

Pay dirt for the reporter.

The serendipitous passenger was Charles Royer, mayor of Seattle from 1977 through 1989, who has since relocated to Cambridge, Mass.

Royer recently conducted a town meeting in Seattle for a PBS program concerning the desert standoff. “In general, we found that the people had little understanding of why we were there (in Saudi Arabia) or what we are up against,” he said.

“The common sentiment was: ‘We don’t really understand it, but we guess the President knows something.’ That’s pretty thin glue for a nation that has 400,000 of its people ready to go to war.”

His own reaction to the crisis goes two ways. “I understand the position that we can’t allow a country to annex another country by force,” Royer said. “But I just don’t think that we have the consensus of the American people that it’s worth lives.

“There’s a problem with fighting a war on television,” Royer observed. “The American public will see every death and every body bag.”

Suddenly Royer noticed the mounting cab fare. “How far away is Pomona?” he fretted.

It was $54 away. “I always feel bad for people from out of town who don’t realize the distances between cities here,” Taha said after delivering Royer to his destination. He briefly stopped in a Cal Poly parking lot to pray, then headed back for Orange County.

Santa Ana couple Beverly and Bob Lawson boarded Taha’s cab at the airport.

“Since I have a 19-year-old son, it scares me,” said Beverly Lawson, 49, a homemaker. “I’m not familiar with everything that’s going on, but I think Hussein will withdraw. He’s not stupid.”

“He’s not that stupid,” qualified Bob Lawson, 52, who owns an air-conditioning company.

Back at the airport, behind some 15 cabs also waiting in line, Taha was temporarily joined by his buddy and co-worker, Amjad Najjar, a native of Lebanon.

“Hi there! Have you two solved the Middle East crisis yet?” asked Najjar, 28--who was taking a break from his cab, stalled in the airport queue.

Then Najjar proceeded to assert his own analysis: “Sadly enough, a lot of Americans just want to go in there and kick butt, and they don’t understand the underlying problems. But then, the government is not telling them everything. When you give someone half the truth, how can he have an informed opinion?”

Taha excused himself to pray. By the time he returned, his friend had scampered back to his cab to inch it through the line.

He laughed--at himself, at Najjar, at his customers, at the brewing tragedy that has stirred so many different emotions.

“Aren’t politics wonderful?” he said.