‘When?’ Is the Big Political Issue for Troops in Iraq

From his machine gun perch here in the Iraqi capital, Staff Sgt. Jose Gonzalez has glimpsed insurgent rockets streaking through the night sky and seen numerous car bombs erupt into pillars of smoke.

What he hasn’t watched in Iraq, though, is a presidential debate.

“I really don’t have time to sit down in front of a TV and listen,” said the 38-year-old California National Guardsman. “I wish I could, but I just don’t have the time.”

Like many soldiers in Iraq, Gonzalez said he’s relying on snippets of campaign news coverage, his experiences on the ground and plain old gut instincts to decide who should be his next commander in chief. Iraq -- and when U.S. troops will leave -- is a key issue.

Both candidates say the U.S. can’t pull out until Iraq is stabilized. Kerry has said it might be possible to bring all troops home within four years, but Bush has been less specific. Gonzalez thinks Kerry might want to leave too quickly.

“President Bush kind of lied on some issues, but we’re too far into this to leave,” said the Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and Victorville resident. “Kerry thinks he’s going to bring us home right away, but he can’t. Once we leave, this country is going down the toilet.”

Meanwhile, in a largely peaceful area about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, another California National Guardsman said he’s voting for Kerry and -- he hopes -- a quicker end to the war.

“If Bush told us what we were going to be doing here, I’d feel a lot better,” said Sgt. Curtis Lewis, 42, of San Diego. “Are there going to be 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq for the next 10 years? There’s too much ambiguity about our role. Cities that we had taken are now back in the hands of insurgents, and good men are dying.”

Members of the U.S. armed forces tend to favor Republican candidates, who are often viewed as more supportive of defense spending.

This belief was strengthened during the Clinton administration, when the size of the military was reduced. Today, many National Guardsmen believe they were activated and sent to Iraq because of this reduction in the active military.

At military bases throughout Iraq, posters on bulletin boards and recreation buildings urge soldiers to obtain absentee ballots. Many soldiers have already received their packets, filled them out and returned them.

“We give them all the information they need if they want to vote,” said Army National Guard Maj. John McBrearty, the executive officer of Riverside’s 1-185th Armor Battalion. “We don’t do anything beyond that. We’re not allowed to campaign for anyone or use our position to influence them.”

However, informal campaigning among troops does occur.

In a Shiite Muslim village 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, a patrol of U.S. soldiers recently handed out pencils, pens and notepads at an elementary school. Before entering the building, one soldier unfurled a dark blue Bush-Cheney T-shirt and draped it over a small boy. “Get a picture!” the soldier yelled.

Not to be outdone, another soldier handed two Kerry campaign buttons to two other boys, who stared at the objects uncomprehendingly.

Discussing their election picks publicly has placed many soldiers in a predicament. Although establishing democratic ideals such as free speech in Iraq is a U.S. goal, the soldiers are fearful of being viewed as critical of their current -- or future -- commander in chief.

“It’s like such a weird voodoo type thing that we can’t express our political views,” said Spc. Anthony Dixon, 36, of Windsor Hills.

“My whole family is Democrat, but being over here, it’s a whole different story,” said Dixon, a California National Guardsman in the Riverside-based 1-160th Infantry Regiment and a Los Angeles County firefighter. “I’m voting for George Bush because he’s a go-getter.”

Another soldier in Dixon’s unit said he was supporting Kerry, but did not want to be seen as disloyal to the president.

“If my commander in chief tells me to jump, I’ll jump -- but I don’t have to like it,” said Cpl. James Threadgill, 32, of San Diego.

The guardsman said he has voted Republican in past elections but shifted to Kerry based on domestic economic policy and the decision to go to war without full international backing.

“We’re not the superpower now that we think we are,” Threadgill said. “We don’t have the respect we had 20 years ago. If we’re going to be a part of the United Nations, we need to work with the U.N.”

Threadgill said he was also disturbed by the president’s decision to grant a one-time, across-the-board tax break to Americans shortly after he took office.

“I made the decision to vote Democrat when everyone got that check for $300 or whatever it was,” Threadgill said. “When the Democrats confronted the president and asked him where he was going to get this money, he couldn’t give them a straight answer.”

Lewis, the other Kerry supporter, is attached to the California National Guard’s 1-185th Armor Battalion. The unit provides security for a convoy refueling station on the military’s main supply route between Kuwait and Baghdad.

Lewis said that he was skeptical of Kerry’s pledges to bring more international forces into Iraq, but that he believed the candidate’s economic policies were more sound than Bush’s.

“To me, Kerry’s naive to think he’s going to get more international support,” Lewis said. “But I’m really concerned about the longevity of this situation and the economic impact it’s going to have on the home front.”

But Gonzalez said the war in Iraq was helping to kill terrorists who are intent on attacking the United States.

“Bush is doing what he has to do,” Gonzalez said. “How else is he going to protect our country if he doesn’t do this? The same guys who are crying, ‘Why are we over here?’ are the same ones who are going to be crying when [terrorists] come over the border of Mexico.”

Although they are backing different candidates, Lewis and Gonzales share a sinking feeling about the focus of the presidential campaign and the solutions both candidates offer.

“Bush doesn’t know how he’s going to get us out of here and neither does Kerry,” Gonzalez said. “Neither one of these guys can tell us how long it’s going to take.... More and more it seems that politicians don’t answer questions; they just dance around it.”