GIs’ Morale Dips as Iraq War Drags On
YOUSIFIYA, Iraq - In the dining hall of a U.S. Army post south of Baghdad, President Bush was on the wide-screen TV, giving a speech about the war in Iraq. The soldiers didn’t look up from their chicken and mashed potatoes.
As military and political leaders prepare to deliver a progress report on the conflict to Congress next month, many soldiers are increasingly disdainful of the happy talk that they say commanders on the ground and White House officials are using in their discussions about the war. 
And they’re becoming vocal about their frustration over longer deployments and a taxing mission that keeps many living in dangerous and uncomfortably austere conditions. Some say two wars are being fought here: the one the enlisted men see, and the one that senior officers and politicians want the world to see.
“I don’t see any progress. Just us getting killed,” said Spc. Yvenson Tertulien, one of those in the dining hall in Yousifiya, 10 miles south of Baghdad, as Bush’s speech aired last month. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Morale problems come as the Bush administration faces increasing pressure to begin a drawdown of troops.
The Times reported Friday that Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to advise Bush to reduce U.S. force levels next year by almost half because of the strain on the military.
But Pace on Friday said, “The story is wrong, it is speculative. I have not made or decided on any recommendations yet.”
Plenty of troops remain upbeat about their mission in Iraq. At Patrol Base Shanghai, flanking the town of Rushdi Mullah south of Baghdad, Army Capt. Matt Dawson said residents used to shoot at troops but now visit them and offer ideas on improving security.
“For the 20-year-old kids here who have been shot at for 10 months in a row, the change is a tremendous feeling,” Dawson said last week.
The Army cites reenlistment numbers as proof that morale remains high and says it expects to reach its retention goal of 62,200 for the fiscal year.
“On the 4th of July, we reenlisted 588 service members . . . in Baghdad. That has to be an indicator,” said Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, who visits bases to gauge morale on behalf of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.
Based on his encounters, Hill said, he would rank morale at 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Units that are having real success are units where troop morale is extremely high,” Hill said. “Units that are sustaining losses, whether it be personnel losses, injuries or casualties — those are organizations where morale might dip a bit.”
The signs of frustration and of flagging morale are unmistakable, including blunt comments, online rants and the findings of surveys on military morale and suicides.
Sometimes the signs are to be found even in latrines. In the stalls at Baghdad’s Camp Liberty, someone had posted Army help cards listing “nine signs of suicide.” On one card, seven of the boxes had been checked.
“This occupation, this money pit, this smorgasbord of superfluous aggression is getting more hopeless and dismal by the second,” a soldier in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, wrote in an Aug. 7 post on his blog, www.armyofdude.blogspot.com.
“The only person I know who believed Iraq was improving was killed by a sniper in May,” the blogger, identified only as Alex from Frisco, Texas, said in a separate e-mail.
The Army’s suicide rate is at its highest in 23 years: 17.3 per 100,000 troops, compared with 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, the first year of the war. Of the 99 suicides last year, 27 occurred in Iraq.
The latest in a series of mental health surveys of troops in Iraq, released in May, says 45% of the 1,320 soldiers interviewed ranked morale in their unit as low or very low. Seven percent ranked it high or very high.
Mental health trends have worsened in the last two years, said Cindy Williams, an expert in military personnel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “These long and repeated deployments are causing acute mental stress,” she said.
Most troops in Iraq expected 12-month deployments. Those were extended in May by three months for the troop buildup. Thousands already were on their second or third deployments.
The result is a fighting force that includes many soldiers who are worn down, just as Petraeus, who took command of the war six months ago, is asking them to adopt intense counterinsurgency tactics. Those strategies emphasize living “outside the wire,” in military-speak, in outposts that put troops close to Iraqis. The theory is that people will come to trust the soldiers and share information needed to quell the violence.
But these posts often lack basic amenities such as running water, flush toilets, telephones and Internet access, which troops at the forward operating bases enjoy, along with food courts and athletic facilities. Being on the front lines, troops in outposts also face greater danger than those at bases.
Since the war began, there have been eight months in which U.S. troop deaths topped 100, including three months since the buildup began in February.
In Yousifiya, troops occupy the sun-scorched grounds of a former potato-processing plant. They use pit latrines and get showers only when there is enough water. They jog around a shade-less concrete lot that serves as a helipad and mortar-launching site. Other troops in this area have far less comfortable surroundings.
Army Maj. Rob Griggs believes rough conditions are good for the mission. Without comforting distractions, troops are more driven to complete their jobs, said Griggs, who is on his fifth deployment, including two in Iraq, since enlisting 17 years ago.
“It allows them to focus on why they are here,” said Griggs, who sleeps and lives in half of a 20-foot metal shipping container on the Yousifiya base. Having troops live in the same spare conditions as many Iraqis do also helps convince people that the Americans are genuine about wanting to make things better, he said.
But the disparities in living and working conditions among soldiers heighten resentments, chipping away at morale. So does the feeling that the mission is futile, a belief fueled by the Iraqi political stalemate and the unreliability of Iraqi forces.
“There are two different wars,” said Staff Sgt. Donald Richard Harris, comparing his soldiers’ views with those of commanders in distant bases. “It’s a dead-end process, it seems like.”
Asked to rank morale in his unit, Harris gave it a 4 on a 10-point scale. “Look at these guys. This is their downtime,” he said, as young soldiers around him silently cleaned dust from their rifles at a battle position south of the capital. A fiery wind blasted through the small base, an abandoned home surrounded by sandbags and razor wire.
“It sounds selfish, but if we just had phones and Internet service,” said Staff Sgt. Clark Merlin, his voice trailing off.
Their unit was supposed to go home this month but its tour was extended until November. That means three more months of using plastic sacks for toilets, burning their waste and hoping for packages from home.
“I think the extension has been 99% of the reason morale is low,” said Merlin, rating it 4 or 5.
Counterinsurgency expert Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations said the “two wars” issue is common in conflict zones as front-line soldiers grow to resent troops at the bases and come to believe their commanders are out of touch with the realities in the field.
“But this kind of war really highlights it,” Biddle, who has advised Petraeus, said of Iraq. Soldiers’ discomfort is compounded by the task of forging relations with people whom few trust, and who often make clear their dislike of the U.S. presence.
“All war is political, but usually privates and specialists don’t have to think much about that part of it. In this conflict they do, to a much greater degree,” Biddle said, referring to the community activities that troops have been drawn into. These include negotiating with tribal leaders who once harbored insurgents, striking deals with former insurgents to bring them into the Iraqi security forces, and listening to residents’ complaints about lack of services.
“You have to help people despite the strong suspicion that lots of them mean you ill,” Biddle said. “We’re asking an awful lot of very, very young people.”
It is especially difficult for soldiers trained to fight a uniformed enemy but in Iraq face an array of unconventional forces. Most thought their job was finished after Saddam Hussein was ousted. Instead, they found themselves directing traffic in Baghdad’s chaotic streets. Four years later, they still are policing and doing community work they did not anticipate.
“You couple that with getting blown up and shot at, and it definitely makes it harder to deliver service with a smile,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Littrell, whose plan to leave the Army in May was thwarted when his unit’s tour was extended.
At another patrol base, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces in southern Iraq, was introduced to 1st Lt. Jeff Bess. The young man had just arrived for his first assignment. Asked how he liked the Army so far, Bess made an attempt to be polite. “It’s a learning experience, sir,” he replied.
Lynch told him: “You’re making history here while those back home are watching it on TV.”
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
“The Times reported Friday that Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to advise Bush to reduce U.S. force levels next year by almost half because of the strain on the military.
But Pace on Friday said, “The story is wrong, it is speculative. I have not made or decided on any recommendations yet.””
The always report that someone high up is recommending troop reductions, or that troop reductions will be undertaken before such and such a date, before smaacking the Iraqis with another increase in oppression & another extension of duty tours for the uniformed detainees (aka soldiers).
I’ve come to expect anything from this shameless Bush gang, but even I was shocked to see one of their commercials exploiting crippled veterans of Iraq to argue for continuing the war. And the mother of an amputee asking what it all meant if we quit without winning is something like saying that although you’ve lost 50% of your investment in Enron, what does it all mean if you get out now?
We all, people and nations, make dumb mistakes, but what’s really dumb is riding them to the bottom.
And I wonder, how did Hitler continue to sell the war after Stalingrad? Was he also so totally shameless as to exploit his maimed and dead?
As the Russian armies continued the drive from the East & the Allies from the West, the German people were reassured by the collapsing regime that there was a secret weapon that would be unleashed, that there was a plan that would halt the advancing armies. Especially in the bunker, the faithful believed until the very last days that their Fuhrer was prepared, that everything would be reversed in a lightning stroke . . .
The wars in Vietnam & Iraq were designed to help billionaires aquire even more material wealth and to perpetuate the illusion that we need to spend hundreds of billions per year for what the liars call “defense”. The US political & economic system is rotten to the core. It is crumbling and will soon be replaced with something good. The people are starting to think. It’s part of our inevitable evolutionary development that can’t be stopped.
Onward through the fog!
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“There has to be an in-depth, sober, objective process of taking stock of the root causes of global terrorism and developing an appropriate response to it. Without justifying the current terrorist attack on the US, we can ask the following questions. Is the US reaping the terrorist policies it has sowed? Why the intense hatred for the US? Will the ordinary US citizen awaken to the global impacts that US government policies are having, policies that are crafted by a few in power? Are US economic policies that one-sidedly glorify competition and profit over equitable human development, resulting in massive poverty, de facto terrorist policies?”
Nicanor Perlas, President, Center for Alternative Development Initiatives
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“Peace will be the result of understanding and sharing,
and not the origin of them…” Djwahl Khul
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“The time for war has past.”
The World Teacher
“The people are starting to think.”
Max… this really made me laugh out loud. They’re definately not starting to think, and most people simply lack the ability to think critically. Most Americans are also delussional (which makes them ignorant), timid, insecure (desperate for approval and attention from “Authority”), paranoid, demoralized, ravanous and ultimately passive.
It’s at a point where i’ve considered giving up any interest in politics because people are so helpless, and seemingly content being exploited, ripped off, lied to, manipulated and conrolled by the corperate government and it’s propoganda ministry (the corperate media). But then I wonder if everyone else has already reached this same conclusion, and that’s why they don’t care anymore either.
Mastershake -
I totally agree with you when you say that most (American) people are not thinking critically, but think that many of them are capable doing of so and would, if they were encouraged by the educational system and the system’s leadership.
I should have said “Some of” the people are just now starting to think - perhaps me and you for example? Maybe we just started thinking one or two lifetimes ago.
The relatively powerful people in the world who have been doing relatively great things (for the good of large groups of mankind) like Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Jeffrey Sachs, Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez, & Fidel Castro (to name a few) have obviously been thinking longer and harder than me and most people. In my view they’re all much more evolved than the average person.
Don’t even think of giving up! It’s an evolutionary thing. You have to keep moving forward, or else you’ll experience even more misery than you would by continuing to struggle along with the progressive movement. The struggle for truth, justice and peace is not in vain.
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Non illegitimi carborundum est - Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
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“Tomorrow we will be back on the vast ocean.”
Horace
Sounds like it is time for a mutiny and.or insurrection on the part of the military stuck over there. Or maybe fragging will commence again.
Dichterfreund: Can you imagine if the U.S. economy collapses-which many observers contend is imminently possible-what happens to these troops in Iraq. They will be like the Landsers in Paulus’ Sixth Army at Stalingrad; cutoff from all supplies, cutoff from any medical treatment,and cutoff from all routes of retreat or evacuation.
Yes, our troop are complicit in war crimes (invading a sovereign nation under false pretense).
No, we don’t have to do anything to bring them home. They are going there voluntarily, they can refuse to go. Simple.
Yes, we should do something to bring all these war criminals to justice.
“But these posts often lack basic amenities such as running water, flush toilets, telephones and Internet access,”
Well … diddums. No flush toilets or internet. It must be almost as bad, being a soldier outposted there, as to be one of people of Iraq whose democracy these toops have been busy defending. It’s hard to be sympathetic, knowing that none of these troops are for instance old and sick, or vulerable children, or pregnant or nursing.
As to wishful thinker’s comment about fragging officers - that’s why you absolutely will not see a draft.
A draft will end this mess in a huge hurry, they don’t want that.
does the author of this article consider that maybe troop morale is tanking also b/c the soldiers have been systematically lied to as well? maybe they are tired of killing women & children? maybe they have some sympathy for the iraqi who takes up arms against an occupier? maybe they see US politicians running over to iraq for photo ops and lying to the citizens back home? maybe they are revolted at the incompetence (or treachery) of the dumbya admin (just one example of many: losing 190,000 guns)? maybe they see a thoroughly devastated country and know that they are responsible?
maybe it’s not just the logistics of it (prolonged tours of duty, forward positions, no internet, etc.), but the criminality & absurdity of it?
not in the MSM
“We have said this many times before. When you want to arrest someone it is not acceptable to go there and kill another 10 innocent people or destroy houses. These are violations.”
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-al-Maliki
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20449453/
Look’s like he’s getting tired of the American empire’s bullshit and is starting to show it. That’s why our establishment’s darlings (hilary, Bush, and others) are starting to trash him.
And people are shocked at the murders and other carnage dome by the military! This is DEFINITELY a parallel to
V-nam!!!
This is spooky huh? Room 101 actually exists, right in front of our faces, right on the public record.
Problem is 90% of the public doesn’t get the reference to Room 101, let alone the significance. Another 95% will never read about this because the corperations also control the media.
Unreal we have to feel threatened by our own government, and the corperations that control them. I really wished it was something only out of a novel. This is not the America I knew, (the one I was brainwashed into believing at one point).
Over time the true fascist and corrupt nature of the government and corperations (one in the same now) becomes clearer and clearer. It’s not new to today, this has been the nature of the government for the past 60+ years, possibly longer.
and most people tell themselves they’re informed, and are starting to think about things… but this makes me laugh. As I said before, they’re definately not starting to think, and most people simply lack the ability to think critically. Most Americans are also delussional (which makes them ignorant), timid, insecure (desperate for approval and attention from “Authority”), paranoid, demoralized, ravanous and ultimately passive. Let me tell you, as someone who has worked exstensively with rhetoric, pursuasion, communication, the english language and social pyschology, I can say that yes the human mind is infinitaly malleable, easy to manipulate and program- to a point we can’t even imagine- and especially on the people who are so sure themselves that they are NOT controlled. It is scary stuff. If you can check out social pyschology books on pursuasion, rhetoric, propoganda, animal psychology etc. These will truly give you a grim picture of humanity. And that’s essentially why the system is rigged. The powerful dominate the weak minded. Knowledge truly is power on an unimaginable level.
It’s at a point where i’ve considered giving up any interest in politics because people are so helpless, and seemingly content being exploited, ripped off, lied to, manipulated and conrolled by the corperate government and it’s propoganda ministry (the corperate media). But then I wonder if everyone else has already reached this same conclusion, and that’s why they don’t care anymore either.
We’ve truly reached the point of ravanous apathy in America. Collectively I think many of us know the system is rigged to fuck us over, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.
Bring our troops home now. Sign the Plege for Peace at www.pdameica.org and send Pelosi and your local rep and/or senator a message at www.pdamerica.org
Form a chapter, stand behind H.R. 508, and PDA’s other core issues on its platform and be the agents of change. Build the movement now.
I am sure that Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick cry themselves to sleep every night over troop morale.
With their record of military service they can reflect on their sacrifices during the Vietnam war. Shotgun Dick got a paper cut every time he filled out one of those 5 deferment requests. Then he had to quick knock up the wife. Bu$h the inferior’s service in the air national guard was horrific - several time he had to sober up for just hours and hours.
That is why morale is an 8 out of 10. The troops know that their leaders wouldn’t make them do anything tougher than they would do themselves.
In a word, it sux to be them atm. With arguably 1,000,000 innocent human beings murdered by a Nazi-like invasion force, I’m going to worry about the aggressors’ morale?? What you all need to do is STOP deifying them. When you attack a nation and slaughter the indigenous people, when the target of your whore-ish government is a bull’s eye for the corporations you abstractly worship, when this “Imminent threat” is less than 1/50th the size of the “heroic” killers’ lair, this isn’t an army of heroes fighting bravely to defend their native soil. It’s a bunch of invading killers acting as the minions of a coward too rich and spoiled to defend a nation his grandfather betrayed to make a fortune. I guess like Satan’s twin, Cheney, Bush had “other priorities” like grooming himself to dupe the fools killing for him now.
All you flag wavers must be just bursting at the seams with pride over their “heroic” efforts.
President Lemming
“We have to keep going. 50% of our brother lemmings have already jumped off of this cliff….if the rest of us dont jump too, they will have died in vain.”
During the vietnam debacle, some of us in the church business helped young men facing the draft and, sometimes, men who were already in to formulate why they could not serve or could not continue to serve in good conscience. I assume there are still young men in this position. Is there any coordination to connect them with those who would be willing to help? I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has some input on the matter. briary7776@mypacks.net