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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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August 25th,
2007 - GIs’ Morale Dips as Iraq War Drags On |
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GIs’ Morale Dips as Iraq War
Drags On With tours extended, multiple deployments and new tactics that put
them in bare posts in greater danger, they feel leaders are out of touch with
reality. By Tina Susman Los Angeles Times August 25, 2007 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." Times staff writers Julian
E. Barnes in Washington and Garrett Therolf, Carol J. Williams and Alexandra
Zavis in Iraq contributed to this report. External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-morale25aug25,1,7182791.story |