Like the Nation, Military Families Divided on Iraq

Now she wonders how the debate at home affects the soldiers who served with her daughter -- Army Spec. Toccara R. Green, 23, who was killed last year -- and the other service members still in Iraq.

"I really feel bad for the troops, because it's like they are constantly getting told mixed messages," she said. "They are being told different things all the time. They don't know. Are we leaving? Are we staying?"

Command Sgt. Major Jeff Krausse, 51, of the Washington National Guard, said the country never should have invaded Iraq. He spent a year there, ending in 2005. About three weeks after he got home, his daughter, Army 1st Lt. Jaime Campbell, 25, died when the helicopter she was co-piloting crashed in northern Iraq.

Asked about the war, Krausse said: "First of all, I believe that we were lied to." He denounced the "propaganda" about weapons of mass destruction that justified the invasion and described the war now as a "no-win situation" that is "costing the taxpayers billions of dollars."

Still, he said, he'd go back if called.

"Unfortunately, now that we're there, we've got to finish what we've started," Krausse said from his home in Washington state. "This country is going to lose its credibility if we don't stay and do the right thing."

Jason Scott also has a big stake in how the war turns out. He lost an arm and an eye there and spent more than a year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Now he can understand how Vietnam veterans felt coming home to a country that didn't support the war. And he worries about the effect it could have on the country's resolve.

"Public opinion has become so negative," he said. "So rather than make the hard decision to continue on to do the hard work to fix the situation, we're going to cut out and take the easy path."

If that happened, it would undercut the sacrifices so many soldiers made, he said. But it wouldn't diminish their service.

"That legacy of us being professional soldiers who answered the call can't be taken away from us no matter what happens," said Scott, 29, who now lives in Orlando. "I'll always be proud to be an American soldier. That's not going to change if we leave Iraq."

David Hartman's daughter, Army Sgt. Jennifer M. Hartman, 21, died in September. Since then her father, of New Ringgold, Pa., said he has stopped watching the news about Iraq.

He hadn't hard much about the Iraq Study Group or read its report. And he doesn't much care what it said about the future of Iraq.

"It's not going to bring her back."

News researchers Meg Smith and Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.