Missourians react to bombings

Matthew Williams spent his break from work at a St. Louis-area Wal-Mart Sunday digesting news coming from a television on display: American and British military forces have struck back against terrorism.

Like many Missourians quizzed Sunday, 20-year-old Williams stood behind the American flag and president. He considered the response to last month's terrorists attacks well-reasoned and patient -- coming 26 days after terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, by many estimates killing more than 5,000.

Still, Williams worries: Could Sunday's missile attacks against military targets in Afghanistan incite terrorists to kill more Americans, and is the war on terrorism one that can be won? And what will the human toll be on American troops sent into Afghanistan after the terrorists?

Such questions appeared common Sunday among Missourians, though many -- while going about their regular routine -- heralded the day's events halfway around the globe.

'They brought it to table'

"Great!" exclaimed Fred Tammen, a Murchison, Texas, man who was touring Missouri's Capitol shortly before police closed it to the public. "I think George Bush has done a good job in pulling together a coalition of countries and giving Afghanistan a sufficient amount of time to respond, and the response hasn't been there.

"We ought to keep pounding them until they aren't any more."

Well put, said Capitol tour guide Amanda Henderson.

"I think we should bomb the heck out of them," she said.

Outside a Springfield strip mall, Dianne Rankin said that while she believes the United States acted smartly, "we have to be on guard and concerned that (terrorists) will continue to strike against us."

"But they brought this to the table," the Springfield woman, 45, said at the shopping site Sheila Hicks of Nixa visited after spending hours watching televised updates of Sunday's strikes.

Vigil planned

A coalition of groups stumping for peace and justice in global matters planned a candlelight vigil Sunday night in a St. Louis park, urging the United States to halt the military action and bring those behind the Sept. 11 attacks into an international court.

Sunday's strike "is provocative, in that it will begin a cycle of violence that will spiral out of control," said Bill Ramsey, an organizer of the St. Louis Forum for a Just Peace vigil. "We don't have to take this to war."