SAN DIEGO — Some San Diego veterans say they don't want a war with Iran. On Wednesday, Veterans for Peace lined up along the I-5 bridge at 8th Avenue to protest recent attacks.
The veterans held up signs and some drivers honked as the drove by.
“Those of us who have been there and [have] been shot know what it’s about, and we’re trying to convince everybody else that haven't been shot at,” said Korean war veteran Stan Levin.
The 90-year-old served in the Navy from 1950 to 1954.
“I think you’ve hardly seen the beginning of it, [so] I think they’re going to get hit very hard very soon,” Levin said.
Marine Corps combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient Povas Miknaitis served as a scout sniper in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says he doesn't suspect that there would be a large all-out war with Iran.
“I feel like we’re getting a lot of coverage on something that’s been happening for a while [because] the conflicts in Iran and Iraq have been going on for decades,” Miknaitis said.
Miknaitis was named San Diego County‘s Veteran of the Year. He’s a wounded warrior who has fought in the Middle East and survived getting wounded in an IED explosion that shattered the hearing in his left ear and damaged his mouth in 2009. He says Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack on the U.S. Iraqi base was a common occurrence when he served.
“Mortars, missiles would be launched at our bases regularly. This is just their way of getting back at us for this last incident,” Miknaitis said.
Vietnam Air Force veteran, David Patterson, leads Veterans for Peace and says the president has not made things better and that starting a war is wrong.
“The thing is with the terrorist, you killed one, now you have five more pop up. How long are we going to do this? We’re just going to keep killing people like that for the next 50 years, hoping that we can keep things in check?" Patterson said.
Holding a peace flag while waving two fingers in the air, Levin says she wants the conflict to end.
“I would like to see them stop shaking fists and start shaking hands,” Levin said.
Some people at Balboa Park also held a demonstration in front of the Natural History Museum earlier that day.