US fears grow over Iraq conflict

By Fergal Keane BBC correspondent in South Carolina

There is deep concern, but also strong support for the US troops in Iraq

There is one important marker to lay down at the outset: America does not have a single, overwhelming view on the war in Iraq.

The nature of public responses is as varied and complex as the conflict itself.

It does not defy understanding, but it does demand patience and a willingness to listen carefully.

Take the people of Orangeburg County in the state of South Carolina.

Three young men from this small southern community have died in Iraq.

One lost his life in the shooting down of a helicopter outside Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.

You will hear a lot of worry here about the war, but equally strong support for the troops in the field.

Reminders of sacrifices

There are a considerable number of people who express their disenchantment with the war. But others believe America is fighting to protect itself from terrorist attack.

I don't know how we're ever going to get out [of Iraq] Orangeburg County resident Glen Miller

My first stop in Orangeburg was at the home of local reporter Tommy Brown.

Tommy writes for the Times and Democrat newspaper and, together with his colleague Lee Hendren, he guided me around the community.

It is a place of cotton fields and small wooden houses, where trees of Spanish moss and thick morning mist create the impression of a place lost to time.

It is not radical America or liberal America. Not by a long shot.

As you drive around, you see American flags hanging from the porches of almost every house.

There are yellow ribbons, too, there to remind the passing driver of the sacrifice being made by local men and in women in Iraq.

'Quagmire' fears

At Canaan Baptist Church, I heard a preacher pray for the troops in the field while the congregation answered with vehement "amens".

People are not about to turn on their president... [but] if the casualties continue to rise that worry may harden and start to give George W Bush serious political problems

Many of those in the church had relatives serving overseas.

Afterwards a retired US Navy man, Glen Miller, spoke of his concern.

"I think we are going to be there for a long time," he said.

"I don't know how we're ever going to get out."

Mr Miller said he loved his country and that was what made him worried about Iraq.

He believed that America was being sucked into a quagmire.

A few miles outside town, in a small farmyard, I met the mother of Vorn Mack, who lost his life near Baghdad in April.

Backlash for Bush?

Mrs Cheryl B Mack told me she would miss her son at the Christmas dinner table.

She recalled how he loved to play and wrestle with his younger brother.

Then she disclosed that after her son's death she had told his younger sibling that he was not to join the army as planned.

Mrs Mack feared he would be sent to Iraq and that another of her children would be lost.

So, how do people in Orangeburg really feel?

As I have already said, it is hard to pin a community down to a single emotion, but my sense was of a growing uncertainty about Iraq.

People are not about to turn on their president or turn against the troops.

But they are starting to get worried.

If the casualties continue to rise, that worry may harden and start to give George W Bush serious political problems.