LEWISTON – As Army Sgt. Richard Parker was buried in Phillips on Tuesday and Maine mourned the death of Sgt. Joel House, people interviewed randomly in the Twin Cities said they want the war to end.

Some said troops should come home from Iraq immediately. Others favored a scheduled withdrawal.

Bob Begin of Lisbon and his father, Bob Begin of Lewiston, both served in the U.S. Army, the younger in 1970, the elder in 1943.

They’re pro-military, but don’t favor the Iraq War.

The elder Begin called the war foolish. “They’ll never win that war, that’s for sure.”

The younger Begin predicted it would turn into “another Vietnam” unless the United States gets out soon.

“More guys are going to get killed. More money’s going to go to a wasted effort,” he said during lunch at Tim Hortons.

Spreading democracy won’t work in that part of the world, he said. “These people have been fighting for centuries. We’re not going to go in there and clean house and set them straight.”

Their lunch mate, Bruce Ouellette of Lewiston, agreed.

“We can’t fight an ideology. It’s a religious war,” Ouellette said. “We’re caught in the middle of a civil war over there that I don’t think we can win.”

Across the river in Auburn, Casey Labrack of Mechanic Falls was on his lunch break, reading in Festival Plaza.

The latest death of a Maine soldier in Iraq is “regrettable,” Labrack said. “And it’s really tragic that he almost seems to have died in vain.”

Labrack said he wasn’t sure what should be done in Iraq. He doesn’t see a good solution, “just a whole bunch of bad options. It’s like there’s a dagger in your heart. Some say, ‘Take out the dagger or you’re going to die.’ Other people say, ‘If you take out the dagger, then you’ll bleed to death.’ Both sides are correct. That’s what is really tragic about this.”

Michelle Knowles of Maryland called it “atrocious” that “Too many soldiers are dying from everywhere. We need to get out, maybe not right away, but definitely with the timetable they’re working on.”

James Spencer of Auburn said he wasn’t sure whether the war is being waged for good reasons. “But you can’t say that nothing good has happened from it. There’s some good, some bad, like in everything.”

Doris Martin of Lewiston favors leaving Iraq, “not just totally out, but make it a plan, slowly. If you take them all out, the first thing you know you’ll have another Saddam on the seat. It’s tricky.”

She gets sad when she thinks about young soldiers like Parker and House dying in Iraq. “I can only say thank you. I would just cry for a while, and pray more.”

Gordon Harris of Lewiston thought the latest deaths of Maine soldiers was “very sad and unnecessary. It’s a waste.”

He urged U.S. officials to “bring our boys home.”

Military deaths

45: Total number of military personnel with Maine ties killed since 9/11

31: Number killed in Iraq

7: Number killed in Afghanistan

34: Number of Army soldiers killed

6: Number of Marines killed

Source: Maine Army National Guard