Although some area legislators regret that military action was used in the Persian Gulf, they agree force was necessary to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

"The outbreak of war, any war, is tragic and something that we had all hoped to avoid," U.S. Rep. William F. Clinger Jr., R-23, wrote in his weekly column. "However, Saddam Hussein left the United States and our allies few options because naked aggression by a stronger nation over a weaker one cannot be allowed to stand."

State Sen. J. Doyle Corman, R-Bellefonte, agreed. "I think it's one of the unfortunate situations Saddam Hussein has forced us in to," he said.

State Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Philipsburg, said he supports the troops stationed in the Persian Gulf.

"I think it's a terrible shame that the situation had to come to result in force to remove the dictator Hussein in Kuwait," Herman said. "But I have every confidence in our nationally elected officials and military officers to defend our military citizens over there."

Clinger voted in favor of the congressional declaration giving President Bush the power to order the U.S. attack. Peace may be achieved through war, he said.

"The stakes are high," Clinger's statement read. "Driving the tyrant Saddam Hussein from Kuwait will establish an invaluable precedent for maintaining peace throughout the world in the future."

Corman compared Saddam to Adolph Hitler, saying many people did not think Hitler was a threat until it was too late.

"I think he has to be stopped," he said. "We can't allow one country to run over another."

The credibility of the U.S.-led coalition and the United Nations could have been damaged if the United States had not attacked, Clinger said, adding Saddam's credibility would have increased.

He said if U.N. credibility had been damaged, "a message would have been sent to every tin-pot dictator and megalomaniac that aggression works and they should follow Hussein's example."