Lieberman Confronted By Troops In Iraq: "When Are We Going To Get Out Of Here?"

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.

The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.

He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:

"When are we going to get out of here?"

More quotes:

"He looks just like me," he said. "I didn't want to come back. . . . We're waiting to get blown up."

"I don't want him to snap his fingers to get things fixed," Williams said, referring to Lieberman. "But he has influence."

"We're not making any progress,"

"It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."

But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.

"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."

"It's like everything else in this war,"

"It hasn't changed."

As for Lieberman:

"Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see progress in war that means you're headed in the right direction."

"I think it's important we don't lose our will," he said. "To pull out would be a disaster."

Progress in a picture: