KINGSTON -- Clyde Margelli was a soldier stationed in Laos in the 1960s as the United States was stepping up its military operations during the beginning of the Vietnam War.

With the United States in another military conflict decades later, Margelli said history is repeating itself in Iraq.

''There was a lot of futility in the Army,'' Margelli said of his time in the service. ''This is only the beginning of the struggle.''

Demonstration at park

Margelli, of Highland Mills, Orange County, attended a demonstration Saturday at Kingston's Academy Green Park, protesting the current military action in Iraq. The former soldier said he doesn't believe we should be there.

''It's the idea of going into a culture, thousands of years old, and putting our values on it,'' he said. ''We tried it in Vietnam, we tried it in Laos, we tried it in Cambodia. It can't be done.''

About 140 people attended the demonstration, with many holding signs along Albany Avenue. Signs read, ''Bring them Home,'' and ''Support Our Troops, Vote Bush Out.'' Passing motorists honked, acknowledging the protest.

Many protesters were eager to express their distress over the situation in Iraq, especially in light of the recent attacks throughout the country that have reportedly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi civilians and more than 30 U.S. soldiers.

''It's much too excessive,'' Jack Smith, a demonstration organizer. ''This is unforgivable.''

Smith said he doesn't believe the U.S. government will completely give up power when the Iraqis are supposed to be given control after June 30.

''The United States will control it through a puppet government in Iraq,'' he said.

Protest the war in Iraq at a Kingston
park in the two pictures above. Below,
members of the Women in
Black peace group stand at a
New Paltz street corner.

Anti-war protestors rallied in Kingston, Middletown and New Paltz Saturday to lend their voices to the call for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq.

"People feel very strongly about the slaughter that is now taking place in several Iraq cities," said Jack Smith of New Paltz, the organizer of the Kingston rally at Academy Green Park. "The resistance that is obviously necessary to develop in Iraq - this is after all a struggle for national liberation that they are conducting - is bound to get into conflict with the occupying forces."

The way in which the United States is responding to the Iraqi uprisings "is much to excessive," he said, noting reports of 500 civilian civilians being killed in the last few days. "This is unforgivable, this is unconscionable and that's what's bring people here because they want to end the war immediately."

For those who may say to withdraw now would leave Iraq in chaos, Smith said, "iraq is already in chaos as a result of the occupation and this unjust war."

A handful of women in Black anti-war protestors stood silently at a street corner in New Paltz Saturday, handing out leaflets to the occasional passerby.

In the suburban Middletown Town of Wallkill, a small group of anti-war protestors carried signs urging withdrawal from Iraq as they stood near the Galleria at Crystal Run.