In W.Va., many Bush backers balk at $87b to rebuild Iraq

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff, 9/30/2003

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Wars define Berkeley County, where the foothills turn a battlefield blue in the early mornings.

This small city of about 15,000 was founded by a Revolutionary War hero. The state of West Virginia grew out of the Civil War. Living veterans of the last five US wars -- many from the West Virginia Air National Guard, which has a base in Martinsburg -- live in the suburban developments and farmhouses surrounding the city.

Now a war is riling Martinsburg once again, and the support for President Bush hangs in the balance.

"People are losing confidence in the fact that the troops aren't coming home, and we should have gotten more help before going over there in the first place," said Martinsburg's mayor, George Karos, 72, a Navy veteran who owns one of the city's prime gathering places, Patterson's Drug Store.

A Democrat who voted for Bush in 2000, Karos pauses when asked whether he would back the president again. "At this juncture, no," he said.

His reservations are reflected in national polls, which last week registered sharp drops in Bush's approval ratings, to 50 percent in the Gallup survey. The reason is apparent at almost every lunch counter and workplace in Martinsburg: Where Bush once drew support based on the simple conviction that he was right to take the fight against terrorism to the Middle East, now he's running up against another simple conviction, that US dollars should not be sunk into an overseas rebuilding project.

People in Berkeley County are generally willing to trust the president on his concern about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Karos said he has never heard anyone express doubt that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous supporter of terrorism.

But one number is stuck like a chicken bone in the throats of dozens of Martinsburg residents: $87 billion.

"As far as the economy, I'm sorry to see so many jobs going abroad," said Donald Mathieux, a retired government worker now refueling planes at Martinsburg Airport. "It's really hurt the middle-class workers. And I don't think we can afford $87 billion to rebuild Iraq."

Susan McLoughlin, a waitress wearing a "God Bless America" pin, said: "At first, I thought [the Iraq War] was a good idea, but too many people are being killed, for nothing. Bush should go over there.

They're worrying about feeding people in other countries," said McLoughlin, whose two brothers fought in Vietnam. "Why aren't they worried about us? We have homeless people starving out there. It's wrong. Take care of the US-of-A first."

West Virginia matters greatly to Bush. He defied recent voting patterns to win the state in 2000, and the state is high on the Democrats' wish list for 2004.

The reasons for Bush's six-point victory in 2000 were multifold: Coal miners who normally vote Democratic were upset at the Clinton administration's environmental laws, and some blue-collar voters were offended by President Clinton's personal conduct and took it out on Al Gore.

Berkeley County was a Bush stronghold, a mix of military families, government workers, and tax refugees fleeing the costly Washington-Baltimore corridor with the same frustrations of Boston workers who move to New Hampshire. Bush beat Gore in Berkeley County, 13,619 to 8,797.

As president, Bush has shown unusual attentiveness to West Virginia, using trade laws to limit imports of steel and, most recently, to adjust Clean Air laws to allow older electrical power plants to continue burning coal.

But war and its various costs have had a transforming effect. For many voters, the $87 billion is a direct link between Bush's decisions and their own pocketbooks.

"There's a real conflict in public opinion," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, whose poll last week indicated that 59 percent of American voters were opposed to approving the $87 billion. "They want to stay the course, but don't want to pay the price."

Calvin Bosley, who moved to Berkeley County from Delaware two years ago, didn't vote in 2000 because "neither one was worth it." Now, however, the idea that Bush would spend so much money in Iraq seems to ensure that Bosley will be pulling a lever for whichever Democrat opposes Bush next year.

"Put it to the homeless before you send it over there," Bosley said.

While such frustration was widely shared, the hostility toward Bush was not general. Even some voters who said they were shocked at the price tag for the Iraq occupation praised Bush's personal qualities. Martinsburg has a large conservative Christian community, and some said the cost of the war is not enough to shake their faith in a president who shares their values in opposing abortion.

"There are some things more important than money," said David Wilt, manager of Potomac Video.

And some outside the Christian community praised Bush as an honest man. Contention that he exaggerated the evidence of weapons of mass destruction seem less important to those voters than the fact that they saw him as honest about his intentions: He was determined to go after Hussein, and he held firm.

Susie Puffenburger, a loan officer at Valley Farm Credit, ticked off the names of three friends who had sons or daughters serving in Iraq. "I hate it that men are dying, but I think we had to do it," she said. She said she knows that no weapons of mass destruction have been found, but that it doesn't shake her sense that the war was necessary.

At Carpet World on Route 11, salesman Mark McCoy said he is convinced that Hussein's weapons will be found eventually, perhaps in Syria and that Bush will be vindicated.

"It's going to take a while," McCoy said. "Most Americans are impatient. If we don't stick with it, we'll be overrun."

Like many of the people interviewed in Martinsburg, McCoy's thoughts about Bush are interwoven with his feelings about Bill Clinton. Three years after leaving the White House, Clinton remains an animating force, in part because many people in Martinsburg believe that he will eventually seek to return to power through his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"All 10 of those Democrats are just marking time until Hillary gets in," McCoy said.

Many in Martinsburg said they found Clinton's social policies, and especially his personal conduct, deeply troubling. But to others, especially blacks and Hispanics who live near the center of Martinsburg, Clinton represents an economic high-water mark that Bush can't approach. And many see that every dollar spent on the Iraq War is a dollar not spent to bring businesses back to Martinsburg's historic downtown.

"Economically, Clinton was the best we had," said Matthew Robertson, a nursing home aide. "We can't afford what Bush is doing."

When the Iraq War began, Martinsburg rallied to the cause. The Elks Lodge hung a "God Bless America" banner with a flag and picture of an elk. The library put up a wall of flags. People in Patterson's cheered when Baghdad fell.

By last Thursday, however, attention had shifted from the victory to when the soldiers would come home. The giant headline in The Journal, the local newspaper, read: "More reserves may be called up."

"What started out one way may have fluctuated to the other side because of families being involved for such a long time now," said Cheryl Chappell of Valley Farm Credit.

The Support Our Troops signs in the garden at the corner of King and Queen streets are pocked with mud now. The yellow ribbons at Pikeside United Methodist Church are stained. And at the Shell convenience mart, the Operation Iraqi Freedom "Heroes of War" playing cards, with a picture of Bush on the back, are stacking up beside the cash register. After a short burst of interest, the clerk explained, no one is buying.