Hawai'i's congressional delegation uniformly blasted President Bush's call to deploy more troops to Iraq.

At home in Hawai'i, soldiers were reluctant to comment on the record about the speech, but residents with close military ties were torn — supportive of the troops yet divided over whether Bush's plan would work.

The state's two senators and two representatives in Washington, all Democrats, said such an escalation by the Republican administration would neither benefit America nor bring peace to Iraq.

Sen. Daniel Inouye said he supports a general increase of armed forces available "to address growing instabilities in other areas." But not, he emphasized, in Iraq.

"It would only exacerbate a bad situation, and could signal the possible permanency of this conflict," he said in a statement.

Such a commitment would also put the nation further into debt and reduce the amount of money available for domestic social programs, he said.

First-term Rep. Mazie Hirono, who was sworn into office last week, said she was pleased that Bush took responsibility for flaws in the war effort. But she said his call for more troops did not constitute a new strategy.

"Rather than a new direction for Iraq, this is the wrong direction," Hirono said in an interview from Washington. "I'm glad he acknowledged that the situation in Iraq is unacceptable, but it has been unacceptable for a long time."

Hirono called for a strategy that relies more on diplomacy.

"After all the mistakes that have been done by this administration, it's very difficult to again give him the benefit of the doubt, in terms of his assessment of what is really necessary to end the violence in Iraq and to bring our troops home," she said.

'LOST A LOT OF FRIENDS'

At Kemo'o Farms pub across the highway from Schofield Barracks, a half-dozen men sat around the bar and closely watched the president's speech.

None were active GIs. Several troops who entered after the speech said they didn't wish to talk about it for the record.

"I can say whatever I want," said one soldier who asked not to be identified, "but my superior wouldn't like it."

One person who was willing to talk was pub manager and bartender Sophie Diaz, who listened intently to the speech. Her boyfriend, Travis Gibson, 27, is a radar technician serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Gibson will be back for two weeks come Saturday and then he's off to the fray again, she said.

"We knew he made mistakes," said Diaz of Bush. "I was hoping that he'd just end it and bring everybody home, but it's obvious that's not going to happen.

"Travis understands that. It's hard for me to understand because I'm not military, and this has been going on for so long. We've lost a lot of friends to the war. Travis has lost a lot of friends."

Diaz said in general she supports the president but said if Gibson's tour is extended or if he is later sent back for another tour, "I would be very upset. I would be very angry."

Down the road at Tom's Golf Shop, owner Tom Hrdlicka, 74, was also watching the speech. After it was finished, Hrdlicka, a former Schofield sergeant major, said he was impressed.

"I thought it was a real good speech. I just don't understand why people want to be so critical in this situation as to think that if you withdraw out of that area that's going to do the trick.

"I really think they ought to give it a chance, even though he says he's going to send more troops in there."

The key, Hrdlicka said, is for the additional troops to help Iraqi troops hold critical areas. That would build the people's confidence in Iraqi soldiers.

"And the Iraqi people have got to get a lot of confidence in their own soldiers," he said.

Some of the strongest reaction came from Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who called Bush's plan "profoundly sad," and agreed that it was not an actual change in strategy.

He said he was alarmed by Bush's mention of Syria and Iran, which could signal an expanded regional conflict. Bush pledged to stop the flow of support from those countries to insurgents.

"It's clear to me he's going to try to draw those countries into this as a way of trying to cover the failures in Iraq," Abercrombie said in a telephone interview. "It's almost a messianic view of his role, or his responsibility. His incapacity to reflect on the reality is almost a delusion."

He said "there was a collective gasp in the room" from himself and some congressional colleagues when Bush stated that "there will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship" while contrasting the war in Iraq with earlier conflicts.

"He apparently doesn't see the irony of that in the context of his 'mission accomplished' speech on the aircraft carrier" in June 2003, when the war was really just beginning, Abercrombie said.

NO EXIT STRATEGY

Abercrombie called for a U.S. withdrawal as soon as possible.

"The Shias and Sunnis have been dealing with one another ever since the prophet died," he said. "And on the whole, they've come to make an accommodation with one another. Not always happily so, and not always without bloodshed. But I don't think the Christian West is in any position to comment to other people about bloodshed, violence and terror with regard to religion."

Sen. Daniel Akaka criticized the Bush plan's lack of measurable goals or an exit strategy.

"This is a war that we should never have gotten into, and I oppose putting more American lives in jeopardy," he said in a statement. "I am disappointed that the president did not take to heart the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that called for 'new and enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the region.'"

He said the U.S. should "stabilize the Iraqi government and ... withdraw our troops as soon as possible."

Akaka's staff said he had been assured by Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, Hawai'i's adjutant general, that Bush's plan did not call for the deployment of more National Guard troops from the Islands.

Kyle Kajihiro, program director for the American Friends Service Committee of Hawai'i, said it would be "madness" to commit more troops to Iraq.

"The war was a tragedy from the start," he said. "It's an illegal and immoral policy. To say that we made errors, and then to commit more resources to further that error is just madness."

Back at the bar, Vietnam-era Marine Eddie Freeman was contemplating Bush's speech.

"I'm not positive about the surge and adding more troops but right or wrong, I'm right there with the troops 100 percent," Freeman said.

"I can tell you that if you speak with an Iraq soldier, he's going to tell you straight up that he would prefer to be there than here — being with his comrades and doing what the president has laid out for us," Freeman said.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com and Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.