NYT,pg1: Among Soldiers and Families, Applause Mixes With Doubts

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Among Soldiers and Families, Applause Mixes With Doubts
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: June 29, 2005


WELLINGTON, Colo., June 28 - Specialist Nicki Worrell said that she was not bitter or burdened with regrets about her service in Iraq and that the leg and arm wounds she suffered in August 2003 when a roadside bomb blasted the Humvee she was driving had mostly healed.

But what made her talk back to her television on Tuesday night was President Bush's promise, repeated again and again in his speech to the nation, that the troops would come home when the job is done and freedom is fostered for the Iraqi people. She no longer believes that coming home is possible.

"We won't ever leave," said Specialist Worrell, a 23-year-old college student from a military family - grandfather in the Air Force, uncle in the Army - as she sat in her home here, her still slightly discolored left leg propped up on the couch.

Hearing the president declare that "we have a clear path forward," a sampling of people across the country who, like Specialist Worrell, have been part of the mission in Iraq, expressed wide support for the troops, but some concern about the mission's execution and its conclusion.

A petty officer in Florida applauded Mr. Bush for not setting a timetable for withdrawal, but some retired officers worried about whether enough was being done to shore up the ranks of recruits. An uncle of a wounded soldier saw similarities to Vietnam....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/politics/29react.html?oref=login&pagewanted=all