So it turns out that the Bush administration's real definition of "Support Our Troops" is this:

Send the troops to war, promise them a quick return, then keep them in the dark, with no idea of when they can see their families again, if they survive a mission for which they have no training and no appetite - and while they're away, pinch pennies rather than increase their benefits.

Americans on both sides of the Iraq invasion debate can agree: This administration must do better at preserving troop morale. As war began, the troops kept hearing from commanders that the way home was through Baghdad. Well, Baghdad fell - at least, the statue did - and they found themselves not at home, but stuck in Iraq, policing America's increasingly dangerous "victory."

It has been particularly tough on the 3rd Infantry Division, which led the charge into Baghdad. These soldiers have suffered from a dizzying series of contradictory statements: First, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the division would go home in August and September. Then Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, the division commander, said they'd be staying indefinitely. Then the U.S. Central Command said it was still committed to a September return. Also, Rumsfeld said this is not a guerrilla war, but Gen. John Abizaid, the new head of Central Command, said it is.

"It's obvious they can't believe anything they're told at this point," said Charles Sheehan-Miles, who served in the first Gulf War with a tank battalion now in Iraq. "At least in '91, we had a very clear objective: If we get there and live through it, then we can get on a plane and go home, and that's what we did."

Some certainty about coming home is crucial to morale. Even in the horror of Vietnam, troops knew they'd be coming home after 13 months - if they survived. But those in Iraq have no clue.

"These guys have done their share," said Marcus Corbin of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank. "If they had an end point, you can put up with a whole lot, but if it's sort of indefinite, then it makes it much tougher."

Other countries won't send soldiers now to mop up what they saw as an unnecessary war. So the United States is stuck with the job, and it's difficult to rotate troops already stretched too far. The resulting uncertainty and the continuing guerrilla attacks are taking their toll.

Soldiers are writing their members of Congress. Quotes from the troops are becoming increasingly angry. One or two even suggested to the press that Rumsfeld resign. At home, families are frayed with worry and the burdens of single-parenting. Case in point: A colonel dispatched to meet with hundreds of 3rd Infantry Division spouses faced such hostility that he had to be escorted out of the room at Fort Stewart, Ga.

Even President George W. Bush is not immune from criticism. An editorial in the Army Times - the Army Times! - complained that the administration is squeezing the troops on such benefits as imminent-danger pay, family-separation allowance, and payments to families of those who die on active duty. The editorial's bottom line: "Money talks - and we all know what walks."

Nor is the Pentagon showing enough concern for the health of these soldiers, given the experience of thousands of Operation Desert Storm veterans suffering from the still-mysterious Gulf War syndrome.

"A lot of my friends got sick after the war," said Sheehan-Miles, who founded the National Gulf War Resource Center and is now executive director of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. One of the institute's goals is greater understanding of the health impacts from the depleted uranium weapons that the United States used in both wars against Iraq.

Now, the Gulf War center argues, the Pentagon is not sufficiently monitoring troops to help deal later with illness that may arise from depleted uranium ordnance or other factors.

All this adds up to an administration that gives its troops, in the words of the Army Times headline, "Nothing but lip service." So the commander in chief should stop using the troops as stage props for his photo opportunities and start paying attention to the welfare of those he commands.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

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