MOULTRIE — Operation Desert Storm Bronze Star recipient Kyle Lewis opposes another war with Iraq.

Lewis, now an employee of National Beef in Moultrie, was 28 and a fire direction specialist in the 4th Battalion, 5th Field Artillery at the time of the Gulf War. He had already served six years in the Army before shipping out to the desert for six months to liberate Kuwait.

Now, with the Bush administration ready to lead a coalition of force against Iraq any week now, many Americans are demanding why.

Lewis is among them.

“Do I think we should have gone over there the first time? No. Do I think we should’ve gone over there this second time? No. We have no reason to be there. We killed a lot of innocent people,” Lewis said, shaking his head, during an interview with The Observer.

Lewis and his unit advanced 540 miles in the desert, seizing part of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard during the Last Stand at Sofwan.

“We used way more firepower than was needed. Their back was broke once the Air Force scraped in there. We just kept killing,” he said.

“We totally took Sofwan out. Our battalion could level a city like Moultrie in five minutes, so we totally leveled Sofwan. There was some of the elite fighting group left, but not enough to level the city.”

Lewis told of unnecessary raids and the merciless killing of soldiers with their hands held high in surrender.

And though he hates the atrocities directed by Saddam, he believes the U.S. caused more Iraqi death than the dictator ever did to his people, he said.

“The killings that we did were senseless. We fired a lot of times when there actually wasn’t a military target to fire upon. There were people there, and the people were civilians,” he said,

Probably 70 percent of Iraqis killed were civilians, he said.

Once, Lewis came upon a bombed truck. In it, three children and a woman were burned beyond recognition. Its driver, a father, had been blown in half. He was intact from his waist up, and in his shirt pocket was a photograph of his family — all of whom were now dead alongside him.

While traveling a main highway Lewis’ battery came upon more than 13 miles full of people killed from U.S. air strikes and artillery.

“That’s like going from here to Berlin. As far as you can see were bodies everywhere,” he said. “We cleaned nothing but bodies up for two weeks — mass graves.”

Iraqi soldiers had one weapon to 10 men, Lewis said.

Any war now will have more needless casualties, he said.

Unless Saddam acquires nuclear capabilities, Lewis doesn’t believe it’s America’s place to strike first.

“You should not have a soldier dying on foreign soil, unless it’s an actual threat to our soil. If it’s terrorists, it’s going to happen, you can’t stop it,” he said.

“If we could spend a portion of that money used in deploying troops and work with the people who live in Iraq in overthrowing Hussein, all our problems would be solved.”

The Gulf War veteran believes the U.S. should protect its borders against terrorism, but the money being spent on war can be used to more on intelligence for future terrorist attacks.

“I think that we have absolutely no reason whatsoever to be there,” he said. “If we’re seeking terrorists then we send a team in to seek them. But to send a force to kill more innocent people is wrong.”

“I was there, and I know it’s going to happen again. I’m 100 percent sure on that,” he said.