Helena voters this fall will have two chances to cast votes on national policy issues, with the Nov. 6 ballot containing one referendum asking Congress to fund the U.S. military "totally and without conditions" in the war on terror and another asking lawmakers to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq.

City commissioners on Monday, in a 3-2 vote, approved the placement of the military-funding referendum on the ballot after hearing support from a handful of residents, among them a former governor and a former Helena legislator.

A wide-ranging commission debate lasted longer than the public hearing. Some officials said they saw no reason to deny the referendum, which was forwarded by a Helena couple. Others said the ballot issue, when combined with the Iraq war referendum -- which commissioners approved in March -- could result in conflicting messages.

"I just think there's so much emotion," Mayor Jim Smith said after the meeting. "I just felt like this would give everybody a chance to make their mark, state their opinion."

Commissioner Sandy Oitzinger believes the Iraq war ballot issue stands on its own, allowing citizens to support or oppose the immediate, orderly and safe withdrawal of troops from the war-torn nation.

"I fear and feel that (this referendum) will muddy the waters," she said.

Smith and commissioners Bob Throssell and Alan Peura supported the military-funding referendum, while Oitzinger and Commissioner Paul Cartwright opposed the measure.

Both referenda are non-binding policy statements.

John and Cyndi Forbes, who asked commissioners to approve the referendum, had said their measure was separate from any discussion of the Iraq war. They have noted their proposal references the "global war on terror."

Still, the war-torn country invaded by U.S. forces more than four years ago came up again and again Monday night.

Former Gov. Tim Babcock, a Republican who served from 1962 to 1969, said he would feel unpatriotic if he didn't speak in favor of the military-funding referendum. He said supporters of the Iraq war measure have "forgotten 9/11."

He acknowledged the deaths of 18 Montanans serving in Iraq but said more than 300 state residents aged 17 to 30 died in motor-vehicle crashes in the same time period. He's lost a daughter to a vehicle crash, a woman whose son is now serving in Iraq, he said.

A World War II veteran, Babcock fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

"I know what war is like," he said. "I've been there, and war is hell.

"Think what it would be like if we had stopped (fighting the Nazis) ... as some of us would do today," Babcock added.

Former state Rep. Gilda Clancy, R-Helena, supported the referendum, along with three other people. No residents spoke in opposition. Some said it's only fair to put the military-funding referendum on the ballot alongside the Iraq war issue.

"If you're going to have a referendum asking people to vote against our troops, you ought to have a referendum" supporting the troops, resident Barbara Rush said.

Oitzinger and Peura said they didn't think the Iraq war ballot measure opposed U.S. service members, and Cartwright noted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had no connection to Iraq.

"I suspect ... the war on terror has as much to do with domestic politics" as it does with a "very real threat," Cartwright said after making reference to privacy concerns arising since the passage of the U.S. Patriot Act.

Several residents, including Babcock, said they didn't think the commission had the right to be discussing national policy issues.

Some commissioners spoke out against those statements, noting the Helena firefighters and police officers who have been called up to active military duty, depleting local forces. Peura brought the issue up again later in the meeting, after Police Chief Troy McGee said federal grant funding for the Missouri River Drug Task Force has shrunk in recent years as a result of shifting priorities.

"What happens in Washington ... does have an impact on local government," Peura said.

Cartwright said he opposed the ballot measure because he couldn't draw a strong connection between the war on terrorism and effects on local government, while he said the war in Iraq has a more definable connection to city operations.

Throssell said he didn't believe either referendum was appropriate but said he saw no reason to reject them.

"As long as we have room on the ballot, I don't see how we can vote no," he said.

Reach Larry Kline at 447-4075

or larry.kline@helenair.com.