As the soldiers at war in Iraq continue to fight, so do the Americans at home divided in their feelings on the war.

However, the divide has shifted recently and now polling data shows 60 percent of Americans think the war in Iraq was a mistake, up 7 points since August.

October recorded at least 93 American deaths in the Iraq war, making it and January the months with the highest death tolls. This brings the war total to at least 2,037 American soldier deaths.

National statistics compiled by Gallup Poll News Service show the only region of the nation with a majority still supporting the war is the south. While no polls have been done regionally to check the opinions of DeKalb residents, professor Barbara Burrell, the associate director of the Public Opinion Lab at NIU said “I can’t imagine DeKalb would differ much from the rest of the nation”.

Burrell understands the recent spike in anti-war feelings.

“I’ve always opposed the war” she said. “And now I see over 2,000 Americans being killed and I don’t know what the reason is.”

Burrell is not alone on campus in her sentiments.

“It’s sad that we sacrificed 2,000 American lives and so many more Iraqi lives,” Joe Tenbrook, a senior history major said. “It is even sadder that it takes this many lives to change Americans opinions. Even just one person should be too many.”

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace have hinted the U.S may add more troops to the rising number of men and women overseas.

Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters Tuesday, “We have had a pattern of increasing the number of coalition forces during periods when there was an expectation that the insurgents and terrorists would like to try to disrupt the political process.”

During the Oct. 15 election of the new constitution in Iraq, the number of American troops peaked to 161,000, an increase of 20,000.

Dan Turner, a DeKalb resident and NIU alumnus, recognized ending the war is not easy.

“We have to train the Iraqi people to police themselves and protect their people,” he said. “But at some point we have to say we’ve done all we can do and hand the authority over … Iraq is better without Saddam Hussein, he was a horrible dictator. But are they better with us there now? I don’t think so.”