MONROE - A decrease in violence following a troop surge, and the onset of U.S. economic woes, pushed the war in Iraq down on the list of voter priorities in the presidential election. But it still remains a controversial subject among many people.

It took a Marine veteran to willingly sit down and talk at length about politics and the war in Iraq, something several veterans in Monroe did not want to do.

Duane Rackow, Monroe, spent four years as a Marine between 1955 and 1959. He is now retired and plays golf "once a week - starting on Monday and quitting on Friday."

He would like to see President-elect Barack Obama "finish up the war the way it was meant to go."

"I think it should not have started in the first place," he said about the Iraq war. "But finish it up the way it should be and bring the boys home."

Thousands of U.S. troops remain in Iraq, after the initial 2003 "shock-and-awe" aerial attack on that country, then led by Saddam Hussein.

Obama opposed the American-led attack and would like to withdraw the troops quickly. His plan calls for a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq within 16 months after his inauguration next Jan. 20 - 10 Tuesdays from today.

However, Obama's plan also calls for adding about 7,000 of those troops to the U.S force of about 31,000 in Afghanistan.

"As president, I will make the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban the top priority that it should be," he said in late October. "We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaida. That has to be our biggest national security priority."

In an address to the VFW in Kansas City on Aug. 21, 2007, Obama laid out a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, which included ending the war in Iraq; focusing on the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and re-enforcing the mission in Afghanistan with at least two brigades; and developing U.S. capabilities to take down terrorist networks and secure nuclear weapons to dry up support for extremism.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on Oct. 31, 2008, he reiterated those points.

"We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights," he said.

"I believe it needs to be concluded, but we also need to get out with a victory," John Daehlin, Monroe, said about Iraq. "I don't care if the Iraqis take it over, but put a stop to this blowing things up."

"As for Afghanistan, that's an entirely different ball game," he said.

Daehlin, the VFW Commander in Monroe, served 26 years in the Wisconsin National Guard in the 1158th Transportation Company, when it still was stationed in Monroe. He served as a truck driver in Desert Storm.

Rollie Winn laughingly called himself a "draft dodger" - "too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam." By the time the Vietnam war came along, he had three children.

Winn has "high expectations" for Obama, but "I wouldn't want to walk in his shoes," he said.

"He gives young people hope. We need something like that," he said.

Winn didn't put a four-year time limit on Obama for getting the troops out of Iraq.

"But he might impress us in four years. Or two years, in the economy and Iraq and Afghanistan. He won't be able to solve all the problems, of course," Winn said.

"I would say it's a tough situation," Rackow said about the timing of bringing troops home. "I know how things went when I was in the service."

When it comes to getting the Democrats and Republicans working together, Daehlin said Obama is "gonna have to."

"They're not entirely different types of people," he said.

Winn said Obama has the right stuff to "draw more people together than (Republican presidential candidate John) McCain ever would."

"The way the vote went, I don't think he has to," Rackow said. "Democrats won most every election. I don't care if it's Obama or whoever - they can't do nothing without the majority."

But Rackow has more confidence in the military leaders than in elected officials.

"Politicians, they're the ones who should get out of the way and let the generals do their work. The generals know what they're doing," he said.

"They start something and get the boys in there, and then they say, 'oh, no.' Wars are not fought in Washington, D.C. and wherever the other (country's) capital is," he said.

Veteran care was an issue on which many people could agree.

Rackow believes Congress is first making a mistake by not allowing all veterans into the American Legion.

"We were willing to join, and if something happens we would have gone. It's just that nothing was going on," he said.

John Daehlin said the VFW organization's members "would like to see more veterans benefits, like hospital care."

"There are so many things they used to never address" like post-traumatic stress, he said.

Rackow had the same opinion about the Veterans Administration.

"Treat the boys the way they should be treated, and get the care they should be getting," he said.

Obama has put building up the VA on the same level as building up the military in general.

" ... Building a 21st century VA to serve our veterans will be an equal priority to building a 21st century military to fight our wars," Obama said.

Obama noted increasing the size of the Army, Marine Corps and special operations forces; providing equipment the soldiers need to fight; providing mental health care screening and treatment at all levels, "from enlistment to deployment to reentry into civilian life;" fully-funding VA medical centers with no more means testing; and providing more services to military families.

He said he would "immediately reverse a policy that led the VA to turn away nearly 1 million middle- and low-income veterans since 2003."

"Caring for those who serve - and for their families - is a fundamental responsibility of the commander-in-chief. It is not a separate cost. It is a cost of war," Obama told the VFW gathering in Kansas City.

"I don't care (what people say), I think everyone should serve in the military," Rackow said. "I don't believe in the draft, but I think everyone should serve. It makes men out of boys and women out of girls."

"I had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. I don't remember the bad times," he said with a smile.

While Rackow is partial to the Marines, he would advise people go into the Air Force.

If they don't fly jets and planes, at least they're behind the front lines, where they get regular meals, he said.

Still, Rackow doesn't like to think about his grandchildren when it comes to war.

"I hope they don't have to go through what we're going through," he said.