Voters Struggle With Iraq Uncertainty

Mark Prichard, 32, is interviewed by the Associated Press about the war in Iraq outside the Campbell County Courthouse, Friday, Aug. 25, 2006, in Alexandria, Ky. Furious, Prichard said of the resistance in Iraq, "We'll never beat them. How long will we try?", as he left the courthouse after picking up license plates for his jeep that bears the phrase "IMPEACH BUSH NOW!" A Democrat, Prichard voted for Bush in 2000, and used to be a Republican. (AP Photo/Al Behrman) (Al Behrman - AP)

DELHI TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Three weeks after supplying funeral flowers for a local Marine killed in Iraq, three friends wrestled with a question troubling other war-weary Americans.

"We're too deep into it just to pull out right now," said Julie Emmett, 43 and a Democrat assembling wedding bouquets at her Petals & Glass Boutique.

"I don't see an end, and I would like to see an end," said Peggy Lewis, 52 and an independent.

"We cannot leave right now," said Lisa Breen, 43 and a Republican. Like the two others, she agreed that U.S. troops cannot stay in Iraq forever.

Voters across the country are torn about a war that has cost more than $300 billion and claimed the lives of nearly 2,700 Americans in less than four years. They struggle to see a road ahead for the 145,000 U.S. troops trying to quell a vicious insurgency and curtail sectarian bloodshed.

In the small towns, suburbs and big cities of the Ohio River Valley, home to a string of competitive congressional contests, voters say they are tired of the war and favor a solution somewhere between immediate withdrawal and indefinite occupation.

"We're there and we're stuck," Jeanie McCartin, 51 and a Democrat, said, sighing as she swept bits of litter on the sidewalk outside the downtown New Albany, Ind., jewelry store where she works.

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As Nov. 7 approaches, the challenge for both parties is to find the middle ground that voters are seeking _ or make each other look like extremists on the issue.

Across the country, Republicans and Democrats in some close races are trying to project a middle-of-the-road position, mindful of polls showing a majority of the public favoring a timetable for withdrawal but not an immediate pullout.

This is the case in an eastern Pennsylvania district, where first-term Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican, faces Democrat Patrick Murphy, an Iraq war veteran, in one of the most hotly contested House matchups.

"I reject Patrick Murphy's 'cut and run' approach, but I also reject the president's assurances that simply 'staying the course' will get the job done. I believe we must have a new plan for success," Fitzpatrick says in campaign literature that also claims the congressman "says NO to both extremes."