Poll: Low Morale amongst troops in Iraq: Why I am concerned

[La_Serpiente]

There was a poll conducted amongst soldiers in Iraq. There was widespread low morale being emoted by the troops. However, Why am I concerned about this?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/980954.asp?0cl=c3

I am concerned because the Republicans will use this as another tool to attack the anti-war people. They will say that the troops have low-morale because there is little support for them at home. They will blame those who opposed the war and say that they are the ones to blame for the low-morale because they don't support the troops.

Do you think the Republicans will use this against us and how should we respond?

[Don_G]

1. Check This Source Out

It's from a Reservist who's been there and done that. It's even more critical and only the first part of five.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00105.htm

[SuperPatriot]

2. surprised it was even posted on msnbc

Personally im surprised MSNBC even posted this poll, recently it seems they have been trying to out Fox Fox news in terms of shameless bias.

[La_Serpiente]

3. Welcome to the club superpatriot

Hmm...1st post eh?

[SuperPatriot]

8. Morale down??

Hey i personally disagree with this poll,how can morale be so down when many soldiers wrote such touching letters,morale is so "high" that they were thinking the exact same thing word for word when they wrote these letters to their newspapers,morale down Nah. My favorite euphimisim for soldiers death is "Non combat related weapons discharge" AkA Suicides,good thing we have such "fair and balanced" media outlets who keep up informed on the plight of our soldiers.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. LOL! Welcome to DU

[newyawker99]

12. Hi SuperPatriot!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[JackSwift]

4. The RePukes are going to accuse us of lack of

patriotism and treason come hell, high water, or good times. That's who they are. Your answer should be that they should enlist, go over there and improve morale and fill in the man power gap.

[onebigbadwulf]

5. speaking of treason...

when can we expect cheney (the alleged CIA leaker) to be sentenced to death for treason?

[AndyTiedye]

6. If They Dare to Try That We Should Shred Them

It is the Bush adminstration who has been cutting their benefits.
It is the Bush adminstration who sent them there
and didn't send enough armor,
or enough water or food.

I don't think Mr. AWOL is too popular with the troops over there.

[patrice]

7. When you tell folks to go and kill or die, you do so because

you expect that they can succeed. You wouldn't tell them to do it otherwise right? You expect that what they do will be successful, that their doing it will make it a success.

If the success or failure of this war INSTEAD depends upon whether some of us stand on street corners holding pieces of cardboard, then maybe it is something Rumsfeld and his buddies should have given serious thought to not doing in the first place.

Its success and failure should depend, as Bush et al are so fond of saying, on the calibre of our warriors. Since it obviously does not depend upon that, since it obviously does not depend on how good a job they do, IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

The reason the success or failure of this war does not depend upon how good a job our troops do is because Al Qaeda et al are "forever", and we aren't. We can spend ALL of the money Bush wants, Give it ALL of the time he wants, Send ALL of the troops we will ever have, and we will still come to a point where we will declare ourselves "finished" with all of it, and Al Qaeda or whoever the "baddies" are will STILL be there. They are forever and we aren't.

Even if we were "forever", what purpose does it serve to engage in an Un-ending War? It has to "succeed" at some point, at which point we declare it over and go home, and Al Qaeda is still there, it keeps on keeping on. It doesn't matter how good our troops are.

The only real solution is genocide. Is that what Bush proposes?

[dreissig]

9. Anti-War Isn't the Source of Low Morale

The antiwar movement has hardly made a ripple even here at home. The troops in Iraq are probably completely unaware of it. There's no chance that the antiwar movement is responsible for low morale in Iraq.

[SuperPatriot]

10. Anti war movement

Id have to say being attacked on a daily basis,soldiers dieing all around,being in super hot temperatures all day long in full battle gear,not enough rations,gear and soldiers and being there on based on bad intelligence would surely lower my morale. After all that i doubt anti wat protestors would begin to top my list of tops worries if i was placed in that situation.

And dont forget President Bush's challenge to "Bring them on"

Easy to say that when your in the white house with f-16's all around and countless amounts of armed guards at your disposal

[nostamj]

13. here's the Stars & Stripes article about that survey

Ground Truth

Article

In northern Iraq, just outside Tikrit, a soldier from the 101st Airborne sleeps every night in a sleeping bag under camouflaged netting in an open field. Every meal comes in brown plastic, ready to eat. At Tallil Air Base, about 600 miles to the south, airmen sleep in double beds complete with government-issued comforters and pillows.

Conditions for U.S. troops in Iraq vary widely, and so, too, does the mood and morale of the individual units scattered throughout the country. For months, Stars and Stripes has received scores of letters from troops complaining about one thing or another connected with their service, as well as scores of letters from troops decrying the claims of the complainers and urging them to just do their duty.

In an effort to feel the pulse of U.S. forces firsthand, Stars and Stripes reporters spent three weeks in August fanning across Iraq. Reporters traveled as far south as the enemy prisoner-of-war camp in Umm Qasr, about 15 miles north of the Kuwait border, and as far north as Mosul, about 70 miles from Turkey. To get a firsthand account of what life was like for American forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom, reporters slept, ate, showered and went on patrol with troops.

Part 1 of 7. Featured on CNN this AM. 49% will not re-enlist. 48% unit morale low or very low.

[sangh0]

14. I also blame the anti-war folks for low morale

and I'm equally certain that all those bullets, bombs, and RPG's the Iraqis are sending their way has absolutely nothing to do with the low morale, so stop saying that!!!

[DinahMoeHum]

15. The Repukes can blow it out their ass. . .

we didn't want those kids out there to begin with.

:kick: