When President Bush appeared in a flight suit on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 to declare an end to major combat in Iraq, he received applause from the carrier's crew and high ratings in American polls.

Four years later, the president's ratings have slipped and some groups back home have grown impatient with the war, calling it an unjustified and anwinnable conflict.

"Bush walked out there like Tom Cruise and said, 'Mission accomplished.'" said Dave Coleman. "Well, why are we still there fighting in Iraq?"

Coleman, a Butte-Silver Bow commissioner and Navy veteran, hopes to make Butte the first Montana city to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate and comprehensive withdrawal" of U.S. forces from Iraq.

A group of Helena anti-war activists convinced the city commission just last month to place a similar referendum on November's ballot, calling for the "immediate and orderly withdrawal" of troops from Iraq.

In Missoula, another group is working to pass a resolution through the city council. Despite their different approaches, the lose coalition of anti-war groups in each of the three cities, along with the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center, are now looking to consolidate and promote their efforts.

"With the growing unrest, people of like minds find each other out," Coleman said. "As that progresses, people talk with friends. It's how a grass-roots movement gets started."

Coleman said the new statewide group, operating under the banner Montanans Support for Troops and Military Withdrawal, left Afghanistan off its push for peace, though the Janette Rankin Peace Center lobbied otherwise.

Coleman said the U.S. was justified going into Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden admitted al Qaeda's role in planning and carrying out the 9-11 attacks against the U.S.

In comparison, he said, the nation's involvement in Iraq was and remains unwarranted. He blames the Bush administration for justifying the invasion of Iraq by lying to the American people.

"It was unconscionable in my opinion," he said. "We can't dictate what the federal government does. The only means we have available to us is to take it back through the democratic process."

Betsy Mulligan-Dague, executive director of the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center, said the non-profit organization is asking the Missoula City Council to pass a resolution calling for the "orderly, rapid, and comprehensive withdrawal" of troops from Iraq.

She hopes the issue will go to a vote in May. She also hopes it creates dialogue, one that seeks to identify the nation's best recourse of action.

"We feel that morally, people's lives are at risk, and the best way to support the troops is to bring them home," she said.

Mulligan-Dague said the city of Missoula, like other Montana cities, has been hurt by the money spent on the war. That funding, she said, could have gone to projects closer to home.

The National Priorities Project estimates that Montana taxpayers have spent $698 million on the war thus far. Helena taxpayers have spent $21 million, Butte $24 million, and Missoula $41 million.

"We specifically mentioned Iraq because that's what's foremost in terms of eating up our financial and human resources," Mulligan-Dague said. "I think we did talk about getting out of Afghanistan as well. But it wasn't necessarily included in the resolution."

John Mundinger, spokesman for Helenans Support for Troops and Military Withdrawal, said the three-city group is looking to get a broader sense of the public's feelings toward the war in Iraq.

The Helena group initially pushed for a resolution, like that underway in Missoula and Butte. However, the city commission voted against the resolution, though it did pass a referendum with similar wording.

Supporters say the referendum passes the debate to the public, which will vote on the issue in November. Critics, however, have accused the group of using U.S. troops to advance their own political agenda. They've called the referendum a waste of time, and believe it threatens to divide the community.

"The people wanting this resolution just wasted tax-payers time and money," one reader wrote on an IR blog. "Our city government needs to take care of its own affairs, and not waste taxpayer's time and money over something that will have no consequence in Helena."

After 9-11, Mundinger said, the nation had a clear enemy in Afghanistan and a clear threat in al Qaeda. The U.S. military also enjoyed the support of the international community. That, he argues, isn't the case in Iraq.

"The initial invasion of Iraq was planned reasonably well," Mundinger said. "But they expected the thing to be over and done with. They didn't think beyond that. We've worked ourselves into an unwinnable situation."

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at mkidston@helenair.com