Sydney Souter has a personal reason why he’s opposed to a resolution proposed by the Coalition for Peace Action.
By: David Campbell
Snowden Lane resident Sydney S. Souter has a personal reason why he’s opposed to the Coalition for Peace Action’s resolution opposing war in Iraq, a resolution the Princeton Township Committee declined to consider Monday night.
His reason is named Army 1st Lt. Jeffrey Souter, Mr. Souter’s 26-year-old son.
Lt. Souter is an assistant operations officer with the 709th Military Police Battalion. His unit’s assignment, his father said, is to secure and defend civilian assets and process prisoners of war.
Mr. Souter, who is Mercer County’s deputy county counsel and a former Princeton municipal judge, said he was not at liberty to disclose his son’s exact location, conceding only that his son’s unit is currently in the Kuwait-Iraq area. An e-mail Lt. Souter dispatched Tuesday to former Princeton Township Mayor Richard Woodbridge, whose son grew up with him, suggests he was in Kuwait earlier this week. (For the full text of the e-mail, see Page 12A.)
Mr. Souter said he worries for his son’s safety in light of recent reports about Iraqi paramilitary fighters, known as the Saddam Fedayeen, faking surrenders that have turned into ambushes, killing and wounding American soldiers.
"When you have a child who is at risk and in an area of extreme danger, obviously you worry," said Mr. Souter.
Was he proud of his son? "Oh, God, yes," Mr. Souter said.
Lt. Souter’s mother, Ellen, a former Republican township committeewoman, was unavailable for comment this week.
On Monday night, the Township Committee voted 3-2 to reject a motion to consider a resolution put forward by the Coalition for Peace Action.
The resolution was to oppose an "unjust, aggressive and pre-emptive" war in Iraq that it said is a threat to world peace and "needlessly and recklessly" puts in harm’s way the nation’s military personnel.
The resolution affirmed that the high cost of the war and reconstruction will "grievously damage" the local economy in the township, and called upon the Bush administration to return to international diplomacy to resolve the crisis in Iraq.
Committeewoman Casey Hegener moved to consider the resolution, which was seconded by Committeeman Leonard Godfrey, but it was defeated by opposing votes from Mayor Phyllis Marchand, Deputy Mayor William Enslin and Committeeman Bernard Miller.
According to Mr. Souter, himself a Marine veteran who served during the Vietnam War and in peacetime after the Korean War, the Coalition for Peace Action with its resolution against war on Iraq is unwittingly giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
"They may have good intentions, but they’re putting our boys at even greater risk, and I resent them deeply," he said. "It’s too late to protest the war now. What are you going to do, stop it in midstream?"
Mr. Souter added, "The time to protest the war is over. The time to support our troops is now."
Ms. Hegener stressed Wednesday that her motion was to consider, not to approve, the resolution an important distinction, she said, because to not even consider the proposal would have been to "cut off" the voice of a constituency in the township.
"In a democracy, you don’t try to stifle protest when fighting a country that never had democratic principles," Ms. Hegener said, noting that her vote was in no way a vote of non-support for soldiers like Lt. Souter.
"If I had a child over there, I would be absolutely dying myself, and I would want them home," the committeewoman said. "But it’s disingenuous to say that not supporting the government’s policies equates with not supporting the troops."
Ms. Hegener said of the war, "The government is calling this the first of many, and I’m afraid our soldiers will be in the Middle East for a very long time. These guys may never come home, and I don’t like the situation they’re in."
Coalition member Daniel Harris of Dodds Lane said Mr. Souter was quoting the Alien and Sedition Act of 1795 when he said the coalition and its supporters were providing "aid and comfort to the enemy," and by doing so was branding them as traitors.
"His charge will not stand scrutiny," said Mr. Harris, a professor of English and Jewish studies at Rutgers University. "With all due respect, Mr. Souter’s insinuation … is a remark we reject out of hand as being cheap, uninformed, knee-jerk and unprofitable for reasoned discussion."
But Mr. Harris added, "We grieve that this administration has recklessly and needlessly chosen to put our young men and women in harm’s way, and we pray for his son’s safe return."
Mayor Marchand voted against the coalition’s resolution, she said, because it is outside the committee’s jurisdiction to weigh in on foreign-policy issues, but she said supporting the troops was another reason she voted the way she did.
"I was thinking of all parents and their children, and not just parents," the mayor said. "It’s sisters and brothers and friends and grandparents, aunts and uncles."
Mr. Souter, whose other son, Michael, attends The Citadel military academy in South Carolina, as his brother, Jeffrey, did before him, said his family has been in communication with Jeffrey since the war started, but only sporadically.
"They have a morale computer and he can get on it on occasion and send us an e-mail," Mr. Souter said. "It’s very brief, very terse, and it tells us nothing except that he is well. ‘I’m safe and well,’ he says."