Hagel: "We are seen as occupiers."

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is getting increasingly vocal in expressing his unhappiness with the Bush administration's Iraq policy. In July, he bluntly stated that "the White House is completely disconnected from reality" and "the reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

While traveling around his home state of Nebraska, Hagel enountered a lot of cynicism from his constituents about how things are going there.

Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, acknowledged the U.S. military presence was becoming harder and harder to justify. He believes Iraq faces a serious danger of civil war that would threaten Middle East stability, and said there is little Washington can do to avert this.

"We are seen as occupiers, we are targets. We have got to get out. I don't think we can sustain our current policy, nor do I think we should," he said at one stop.

Hagel has said he agrees with the president that there shouldn't be a timetable written in stone for the withdrawal of troops, but has predicted that the US will start "withdrawing troops from Iraq next year." Not surprisingly, that would occur around the same time as the midterm elections.

Nebraska has voted Republican in presidential elections for decades, but this growing discontent with the war in Iraq now includes people who were previously very supportive of the policy.

"The feeling that I get back here, looking in the eyes of real people, where I knew where they were two years ago or a year ago -- they've changed," he said. "These aren't people who ebb and flow on issues. These are rock solid, conservative Republicans who love their country, support the troops and support the president."