Mood Split in Town Where Bush to Speak

In the year since President Bush and U.S. allies returned official sovereignty to Iraq, life in the community dominated by one of the Army's largest installations has changed little.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg have continued to march into Iraq. And they continue to die.

In the past year, 100 North Carolina-based troops have died in the war, trailing only the toll of 180 from California, according to an Associated Press analysis.

As President Bush plans to come here to make a major, nationally televised policy speech Tuesday night, the mounting casualties and insurgent violence have started to test the public patience for the war, even in a place where signs along the streets boast steadfast support of the troops.

On one such street off base in Fayetteville, 26-year-old Carrie Dimmick said it's about time the United States got its soldiers out of Iraq.

"We told them if they established a government we would back off," she said. "They established a government, but we're still there. I feel like the war is doing more harm than good."

Like many people in this area, 40-year-old day-care center operator Tommy Jones said he initially believed the war was a successful response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Now, it seems like we've been there too long," said Jones, who was a Marine 20 years ago. "There have been too many casualties."

A new statewide poll released Tuesday shows increasing doubt in military-friendly North Carolina over whether the war is worthwhile.

Forty-two percent of 600 active voters questioned Friday through Sunday agreed the war has been worth it, but 49 percent say it has not, the poll conducted for The News & Observer of Raleigh and WRAL-TV found. The survey by Research 2000 had a sampling error margin of plus and minus 4 percentage points. In January 2004, the survey found 58 percent of North Carolina voters saying the war was worthwhile.

Similarly, the latest AP-Ipsos national poll found public doubts about the war reaching a high point — with more than half saying that invading Iraq was a mistake.

But among those in the military here, it was hard to find anyone who questioned the troops' resolve.

About 52,000 members of the military are stationed at Bragg and adjacent Pope Air Force Base, and some 14,700 are fighting in Iraq, including Lt. Gen. John Vines, the base commander who leads the multinational troops in Iraq.

North Carolina also has sent thousands of Marines from Camp Lejeune and air crews from two Air Force bases.

"I think we're doing the right thing," said 38-year-old Air Force Tech Sgt. Tim Holmes, who has served in Iraq. "From the people I've met in Iraq, they want their freedom. You see the attacks on the news, but what you don't see is people trying to establish their businesses back, shaking your hand, waving."

Civilian truck driver Rickey LeBlanc, 28, echoed the support for Bush's policies: "You can't go over there and say `Saddam's gone. Here's your country. Have a nice day.'"

"You don't have people there who know how to run a government," LeBlanc said as he entered City Hall to pay a tax bill. "You don't want someone like Saddam to get back in power."

Right behind him was John Warren, a 21-year-old carpet factory worker from nearby Raeford, who said too many people had died in a war that he believes has also helped degrade the American economy.

Pfc. Richard Gunther, 35, of the 82nd Airborne Division, said it's understandable that some civilians feel that way because he believes they get skewed information from a media that focuses too heavily on insurgent attacks.

Bush probably will "tell us we're doing good things over there and that we need to focus on the good things instead of the bad things the media tells us," Gunther said.

Speaking To The Choir?

President Bush will give a speech tonight from Fort Bragg to revive American support for the extended effort needed to secure Iraq and establish a major base for the expansion of democracy in the Middle East. With unrelenting negative coverage coming from Baghdad, Bush hopes to use his prime-time address with a presumably enthusiastic Fort Bragg audience to highlight the mission's successes and the progress made towards democracy. Bush hopes to bolster the national morale and secure a mandate for our continued work in that effort.

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, that may not be as tough a sale as first predicted. Despite some skepticism about our efforts to reduce the insurgency so far, a majority of Americans already reject the cut-and-run option:

As President Bush prepares to address the nation about Iraq tonight, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that most Americans do not believe the administration's claims that impressive gains are being made against the insurgency, but a clear majority is willing to keep U.S. forces there for an extended time to stabilize the country.
The survey found that only one in eight Americans currently favors an immediate pullout of U.S. forces, while a solid majority continues to agree with Bush that the United States must remain in Iraq until civil order is restored -- a goal that most of those surveyed acknowledge is, at best, several years away.

Amid broad skepticism about Bush's credibility and whether the war was worth the cost, there were some encouraging signs for the president. A narrow majority -- 52 percent -- believes that the war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States, a five-point increase from earlier this month.

I had suspected that the supposedly plummeting numbers supporting the war effort and establishment of democracy in Iraq had been overstated, and this appears to confirm those suspicions. The numbers are even more striking when considering the sample, a pool of adults rather than registered voters, which usually tilts such surveys away from Bush and the GOP. In fact, despite the media coverage that focuses almost exclusively on terrorist attacks in Iraq, optimism about Iraq's future has increased nine points since December, showing that the elections gave Americans a clear idea of the commitment Iraqis have to a democratic future.

Not all of the numbers give Bush much reason to cheer. Majorities fault him for misleading the country into war, his administration of the Iraq phase of the war on terror, and feel that the US has become "bogged down" in Iraq and that we cannot effectively fight elsewhere as a result. Bush has to address those perceptions in his speech tonight to succeed. He has to show that far from being bogged down, American and Coalition troops have accelerated training for Iraqi security forces, that the latter have taken on a larger role in providing security, and that we retain enough global flexibility to address other security risks, such as Syria, Iran, or North Korea.

For his primary goal -- extending support for the immediate mission of securing Iraq as a democratic state -- the President has a nation waiting to be affirmed in that desire. All he needs to do is to present his case about our many successes in specifics, and he can rally the nation behind him again.

-- Captain Ed, captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

I've got family at Bragg...this is a pile of crapola. I talked to him last night and he's going to the speech. In fact he's an Army Captain MI, he helped prepare the post for the President's visit (ahead of the preparations the secret service do). Everyone is very excited about Bush coming to Bragg to give this speech. He told me this was going to be like a 'State of the Union' speech.

Only Bragg soldiers will be allowed to watch the speech..no family members. The only family that'll see Bush are those who've lost their love ones in our present conflicts.

Typical of the MSM and their lies!!!!

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