Nebraska has been a solid Republican state in presidential elections
for decades.
Republicans dominate state politics and hold most elective offices.
But Hagel said even some who had previously backed Bush strongly on
Iraq now felt deep unease.
"The feeling that I get back here, looking in the eyes of real people,
where I knew where they were two years ago or a year ago -- they've
changed," he said.
From Reuters, 8/18/05:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050818/ts_nm/iraq_heartland_dc
In U.S. heartland, anxiety over Iraq, oil By Alan Elsner
BROKEN BOW, Nebraska (Reuters) -
In the solidly Republican state of Nebraska, voters are expressing
deep anxiety about rising gasoline prices and the war in Iraq, a
possible early warning sign for President George W. Bush in one of his
most reliable strongholds.
When Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel traveled around his home state this
week, citizens at every stop brought up Iraq policy and the inexorable
rise in fuel prices.
"Is there anything the United States can do to get some stability in
crude oil prices in the world, because it affects everything we do?"
Larry Ahlers, a manager at medical device manufacturer Becton and
Dickinson in Broken Bow, asked Hagel in one of dozens of such
encounters.
Hagel, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2008, responded
that gasoline prices were likely to stay high for the foreseeable
future because of rising world demand and the U.S. failure to develop
new energy sources and conserve.
Earlier the same day in Lincoln, an elderly woman asked about Iraq.
"Why are we there in the first place?" she asked.
On Tuesday in the central Nebraska town of Lexington, after a meeting
with law enforcement officials on drug problems, three sheriffs
expressed serious doubts about what the United States was doing in
Iraq and whether it could succeed.
Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, acknowledged the U.S. military presence was
becoming harder and harder to justify.
He believes Iraq faces a serious danger of civil war that would
threaten Middle East stability, and said there is little Washington
can do to avert this.
"We are seen as occupiers, we are targets. We have got to get out. I
don't think we can sustain our current policy, nor do I think we
should," he said at one stop.
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Harry
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