'Does anybody have an answer?'

Reported and written by Peter S. Canellos and Marcella Bombardieri of the Globe staff, and correspondents Javier C. Hernandez and Jesse Singal.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - David Wilson stood beneath the art-deco tower of the National World War I museum - a monument to both the futility of war and the dangers of an ill-conceived peace - and talked about the Iraq war.

"I think people want it to be over," said Wilson, 53, who works at the museum. "It was advertised as one thing, and it's not going to stand up to that. Once people get fooled they don't want to get fooled again by the same thing."

That may be wishful thinking, Wilson said, because a lesson of World War I, which created Iraq, is that messes don't clean up themselves - they get passed on through history.

Dozens of Americans interviewed in politically charged districts in five states last week said they are ready to pull out of Iraq.

They said they hope that the debate following Army General David H. Petraeus's report this week will lead to a withdrawal of troops. Like David Wilson, however, most of those interviewed also admit to having concerns about the consequences of withdrawing.

But many said they have little faith in the Bush administration, and some added that they have doubts about the independence of Petraeus's report. Most of those interviewed said they have concluded that the dangers of leaving are outweighed by the dangers of staying, especially the risk to American troops.

"It's a no-win situation," said Mike Manns, a radio executive in Topeka, Kan. "You've got all that sectarian violence and American soldiers caught up in the thing. . . . You trust the general to know what's going on, but you have to believe there's some pressure on him to say progress has been made."

For many interviewed, a debate that once turned on bold assertions such as the need to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction or the immorality of preemptive war has become more nuanced.

Many echoed Manns's air of resignation. "It's the old adage of trying to close the barn door after all the animals are out," said Stu Michael, a Republican from Wheaton, Ill., "Does anybody have an answer?"

Stu Michael and his wife, Karla, are part of the Illinois Sixth Congressional District, a GOP stronghold that sent conservative legend Henry Hyde to Congress for 32 years.

Then, last fall, Democratic war critic Tammy Duckworth, who was a helicopter pilot in Iraq when she lost both her legs to a rocket-propelled grenade, almost replaced the retiring Hyde. The fact that she came within 3 percentage points of a Republican who supported President Bush's Iraq policies was seen as a sign of how uncertain voters were about the war.

They still are. Among the shoppers carrying bags from Bloomingdale's and Pottery Barn Kids along the manicured pathways of the Oakbrook Center mall in suburban Oak Brook, Ill., some Republicans wanted a withdrawal. A liberal wanted an infusion of more troops. Others were too torn even to lean in one direction.

The Michaels, both 62, voted for Duckworth's Republican opponent, Representative Peter Roskam, because he was a "moral man," Karla Michael said, not because of his support for the Iraq war.

Still, the war weighs on their minds. Their two sons are not much older than many of the troops serving in Iraq. "We are continuing to lose our boys, and it touches the nerve pulse of a mother," said the retired band teacher.

On the other hand, the couple is willing to believe that the troop surge is working. They assume the media are not giving them the whole story. Karla Michael listened in on a telephone conference call Roskam held with constituents last month after his trip to Iraq. His message: The situation was improving.

Even more affecting was a young injured veteran they met at a coffee shop. He told them he was wounded while rescuing a little girl standing in the street in the middle of a firefight. He said he'd wished he could adopt her.

"He was obviously sensing it [the war] was doing some good," said Stu Michael.

Still, he fretted that the Iraqis aren't willing to do their part. The situation reminds him of a trip to the Soviet Union in 1987, when he sensed that Russians wanted American affluence without doing the hard work of restructuring their society.

Like the Michaels, Joanne Roeschlein looks stricken when asked about Iraq. The court reporter and mother of three considers herself neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and above all a Christian.

"I think we need to get out," she said forcefully, but then added more softly: "I hate to abandon all these people after we destroyed their country. But we are fighting against a bunch of ghosts."

Similar concerns worry Bob Mathew, a 30-year-old business consultant. He has been staunchly opposed to the war from the start. He railed that the Bush administration is dishonest and said the war is making contractors rich. He called the president's assertions that security is improving "propaganda."

But to withdraw? "It's not right," he said. "Then what's the point of the 3,700 [American soldiers] who died?"

He worries not only about the death toll, but destabilizing the Middle East.

"I think the Democrats are wrong, and the Republicans are wrong," he said. "We are in a predicament."

Concern for troops

The fate of the troops is paramount in Virginia Beach, where the skies are rarely quiet for more than a few minutes. Fighter jets are constantly roaring to or from Naval Air Station Oceana, the city's largest employer and one of four military bases in its limits. Home to evangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University, Virginia Beach is also a stronghold of conservative Christians, who tend to support Bush and the war at a higher rate than any other group.

But along the home front, some have doubts.

Caroline Nichols, 22, said she has an aunt serving in Iraq and a brother who served in Bahrain, and that Marines from her high school have been killed in Iraq.

"Do I think that those consequences [of withdrawal] outweigh the benefits of us stopping and coming home?" she said. "Not necessarily. I think that coming home is the best option for us."

Bill Scott, 64, a Navy veteran, put it this way: "I think we have two alternatives: One, to just pull out completely, or to let [the Iraqis] start taking over and pulling out slowly. But it should have happened a long time before this."

Many in Virginia Beach said they still believe there may have been some connection between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that therefore the US invasion was justified. But they worry that the mission now lacks clear objectives.

The area is represented in Congress by Republican Thelma Drake, whose social conservatism and pro-military views match those of her district. But her support for Bush's war policies almost led to her defeat in 2006, when she eked out reelection with 51 percent of the vote.

Since then, people in the area say, doubts about the war have grown. Many aren't swayed by Bush's most visceral argument for staying in Iraq - that withdrawal could lead to terrorist attacks in the United States.

"If they really want to do something here, they're going to do it regardless of if we have people over there or not," said Janine Bly, 35, who lives in Wadsworth Shores, a planned community for military families. Her husband, who has served in the Navy for 17 years, will be deployed to the Persian Gulf in November for an eight-month tour.

In a different corner of Wadsworth Shores, Heather Hildenbrand, 25, sat in front of her home while her son played nearby. Hildenbrand's husband returned in May from a Navy deployment.

"Are we going to give it a year or 10 more years?" said Hildenbrand. "And when we do decide to pull out are they just going to crumble right away, anyway, no matter how long we give it?"

"It just seems like it's kind of a lost cause either way."

Sadness outweighs anger

The Iraq war has long seemed like a lost cause to many of those interviewed in San Francisco, arguably the most liberal big city in the country. Activist Cindy Sheehan recently launched a protest candidacy against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, hoping to stoke anger over the Democrats' failure to end the war.

But many San Franciscans seemed less angry than sad, believing that the negative effects of the war will outlast a US withdrawal. Some said they have turned their television sets off and thrown their newspapers in the recycle bins because following the war has simply grown too exhausting.

Carol Thenot used to devote much of her energy to marching in antiwar protests and drumming up opposition to the war, but on a recent morning, she sat in the sun outside San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace reading a Chinese novel.

"I'm worn out," she said, acknowledging that she had not read reports about the war for a week.

Thenot said that she would like to see troops withdrawn from Iraq because she believes there is little the United States can do to bring peace to the Middle East.

"We've just messed things up," she said. "I know we can't solve Iraqis' problems. They have to solve their own problems."

In the nearby Financial District, Maurice Brooks, 57, sat on a fire-engine-red cable car shaking his head.

"They've been fighting for over a thousand years over Iraq, and I've just had enough," he said. "We're killing all these kids every day. It's time to get out."

Brooks, a cable car grip man for 26 years, said he believes the United States owes it to the Iraqis to keep some troops on hand in case the region grows unstable. But "let them be seen but not heard," he said.

For some voters, ending the war will be the central issue as they shop for presidential candidates. Others, however, said that while they oppose the war, they will not let it distract from other priorities.

Residents in some of San Francisco's poorer neighborhoods, for instance, said the economy, healthcare, and job security would weigh more heavily in their choices.

"I have a lot to worry about already. I've got a job and kids to take care of," said Manny Rodriguez, a resident of San Francisco's Mission District, in Spanish. "Nobody likes war, but you have to be able to support yourself, too."

Tired of squabbling

Kansas has long been a bellwether of support for the war: mostly conservative, but with a mix of Southern-style Christians, rural isolationists, and, in places like the Topeka, the capital, professionals whose views are similar to those of many on the coasts.

The Topeka area surprised much of the country last year by voting out Representative Jim Ryun, the famed runner and archconservative Republican, and electing Nancy Boyda, an antiwar Democrat. This summer, the national GOP sought to make hay over Boyda's decision to leave a hearing at which a retired general was testifying about Iraq. Republicans said she was disrespectful.

At one time, such a charge might have fired up some talk-radio anger, but supporters of both Boyda and Ryun, who is running again, said they are tired of political squabbling and eager for real information.

"I want to make my own decisions, but I can't get any information because there's so much false information out there," said Chris Dolezilek, 23, of Holton, Kan.

Where once such uncertainty might have led voters to defer to the president, now uncertainty makes them lean toward a pullout. Concern for the troops is an enormous factor, but it pushes people in different directions. Some expressed admiration for Petraeus, but others said they doubted his report would tell the whole story. "The administration has its hands on it," said Mike Drews, 25, of Lawrence.

Sitting outside the World War I museum in Kansas City, Mo., two World War II veterans on a bus tour from Arkansas suggested that even the Greatest Generation is divided over this war.

"Get politicians to shut up and let the military get it done," declared Imon Cook, 85, of Texarkana. "Our senators up there are not helping things."

But his friend Bud Vandiver, 86, of Prescott, thinks it's time to show respect for the troops in another way: by pulling out of a misguided mission.

"The way I look at it, you don't know who the enemy is right now," said Vandiver. "I'd hate to be fighting and not know who the enemy is."