CLIFTON HEIGHTS, Pa., Jan. 11 — Hunched over a beer with a crowd of other veterans at the American Legion here, Rocco Polidoro, said he is sure of one thing: the President Bush's plan to send some 20,000 more troops into Iraq will only make matters worse.
"What I don't understand is who the president is listening to," said Mr. Polidoro, a life-long Republican who like a majority in this Republican district voted for an anti-war Democrat in the last election. "If vets, military brass, the Baker Committee, the international community and now most voters say it's time to get out, then in my view it's time to get out."
Frustrated by mounting deaths of United States soldiers in Iraq, voters in this former mill town wedged between more liberal Philadelphia and more conservative rural farmland, responded to the president's plan with a mixture of outrage, resignation and guarded skepticism.
In warning Americans of the risks of withdrawing too early, Mr. Bush, in his speech Wednesday night, seemed only to harden opinions rather than change minds here just two months after a resounding Democratic election victory was seen as a rejection of his Iraq policy.
"It's one thing to be steadfast and another to be stubborn," said Rick Lacey, another Republican at the Legion hall who voted for a Democrat in the last election. "A guy like McCain, I don't agree with him on this troop increase issue, but he is steadfast because he bases his decisions on experience. Our president, he bases it on ideology and being stubborn."
Even among voters who applauded the president's decision, there was an unsettling sense that the troop increase still was part of a broader approach lacking in clear goals and a concrete exit plan.
Getting a trim at the A Cut barbershop in the Bucks County town of Bensalem, another conservative congressional district that swung to an anti-war Democrat in the last election, John Carson, 71, a Democrat and a Korean War veteran, said that if he were on the front lines he would hope for all the help that he could get.
"I do think increasing troops may make sense because if you go to war, you go to win," he said. "But the terms have to be clear, what milestones? When will we get out? What is our limit?"
Standing near a statue of Uncle Sam riding a bicycle, Hugh Morrow, a 64-year-oldRepublican who owns the shop, intervened.
"Now, wait a minute," said Mr. Morrow, a Vietnam veteran, flipping off his clippers. "The guy keeps digging us deeper and deeper into this mess, why not start pulling us out now?"
At Mary Jeffery's house, also in Bensalem, the conversation among a gathering of 10 Democrats<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/democratic_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>erupted into a heated free-for-all when someone asked whether their party in Congress actually had the authority and the spine to block the president's plan.
"Of course they do," said Ms. Jeffery, a Democrat whose son is stationed in Cyprus.
"It's not too late for impeachment," yelled someone from the back of the room. "Congressional hearings will apply pressure, we have to apply pressure," commented another person. Others mentioned street protests and encouraging soldiers to refuse to serve.
"Look," interrupted John Daily, 46, a Navy veteran "If the president wants to send troops, he has the constitutional power to do it.
"I don't know that cutting off funding is a fair thing to do to the troops," he added, as the room fell silent. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20070111/2de8e55d/attachment.htm>