COLORADO SPRINGS - Active-duty and former military members seemed bewildered by the fight between Congress and the president over Iraq war funding, but equally so by the war itself.

Many who were interviewed Friday criticized the House Democrats' bill setting a September 2008 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations in Iraq. But none had ideas on how to bring stability to the country.

Some older veterans supported the deadline and questioned the war itself.

"I think it's good that they're setting a date to get out of there. To me it's another Vietnam that's not going to end," said Jim Gosse, who joined the Air Force in 1978, a few years after the Vietnam War ended.

"I didn't see right from the start what the purpose was in Iraq. I'm not sure there was one, or a plan."

Andrew Jarrett, a Marine who served in the Korean War, supports pulling out the troops.

"They ought to end it, get it over with now," he said. "It's killing our boys."

Jarrett said he didn't see a purpose for the war. "They claim there is, but I don't know," he said.

Other veterans, including some who fought in Iraq, disagreed with setting a withdrawal deadline.

"They need the money to support the troops, but they're (Congress) trying to slip that (deadline) through. There shouldn't be a time limit," said Clinton Shaw, a retired chief warrant officer who served the Army.

Jay Updegraff, who is serving in the Air Force, said Congress should not set a deadline.

"That's inappropriate," he said. "That's the prerogative of the commander-in-chief."

Several people serving in the military or recently discharged asked not to be named. They said military rules discourage critical comments about commanders and military policy.

One enlisted man disagreed with an arbitrary deadline, saying it could interfere with the mission.

"We should leave when the Iraqi people can self-govern themselves. We shouldn't stay any longer than that," he said. "But we should at least see the Iraqi people through."

A disabled veteran who served two tours in Iraq, and has one son in Iraq and another leaving for Afghanistan, opposed arbitrary timelines. But he cautioned about inflated expectations of shaping a democratic Iraq.

"Their society is not our society," he said.

fosterd@RockyMountainNews.com or 719-633-4442