Iraq, Stars & Stripes survey, 1/2 don't plan to reenlist

[G_j]

Many Troops Dissatisfied, Iraq Poll Finds (washingtonpost.com)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32521-2003Oct15.html
 

A broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist.

The survey, conducted by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of little or no value. Fully 40 percent said the jobs they were doing had little or nothing to do with their training.

The findings, drawn from 1,935 questionnaires presented to U.S. service members throughout Iraq, conflict with statements by military commanders and Bush administration officials that portray the deployed troops as high-spirited and generally well-prepared. Though not obtained through scientific methods, the survey results suggest that a combination of difficult conditions, complex missions and prolonged tours in Iraq is wearing down a significant portion of the U.S. force and threatening to provoke a sizable exodus from military service.

In the first of a week-long series of articles, Stars and Stripes said yesterday that it undertook the survey in August after receiving scores of letters from troops who were upset with one aspect or another of the Iraq operation. The newspaper, which receives some funding from the Defense Department but functions without editorial control by the Pentagon, prepared 17 questions and sent three teams of reporters to Iraq to conduct the survey and related interviews at nearly 50 camps.
...more..

[catmandu57]

1. What happens when a reservist, or guard soldiers enlistment

is up and they are still in country? I know they employ a stop loss to prevent a drain on personnal, but, say a reservist comes to the end of their contract while being shot at in Iraq, is that person then free to make his own way home? Or would they be subject to charges of dessertion and subsequent punishment?

[trof]

3. I think they're IN

for the "duration".

It was a term used during WWII. You joined or were drafted for the duration of the war, however long that happened to be. For many it was 4-5 years.
I think all in the military are in basically the same position now.
The difference is that WWII was a "popular" war that was (more or less) universally supported by us and our allies. Those serving, whether voluntarily or not, pretty much knew what they were getting into.
Not so with this "war".

[JHB]

9. See Mari333's rant on this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=558510&mesg_id=558510

(her son can't leave due to stop/loss)

[Mari333]

13. My son also told me that they get some of the guys drunk

at drill, then sign them back up when they are loaded.
IMO there's a LOT of flak from the top brass to force people to resign up, and do it in whatever way they can.
In the meantime, they wont let anyone go when their time is up. That even further destroys what shred of morale everyone has ever had in the Guard and Reserves.
When they send my son on Friday (save a miracle happening), his business will be toast. He runs it, and he put his life into it. Thanks a lot, Bush and his lying gang of thieves and bastards from Hell.

[G_j]

14. I read your "rant"

but didn't have a chance to respond. This stuff is so criminal!! I can hardly believe Americans are letting this happen.

Have you considered sending a "rant" to www.bringthemhomenow.org or Military Families speak Out, www.mfso.org ?

My heart goes out to you..

[vi5]

2. I want to know where new enlitsment stands....

I can't believe that there are a ton of new people willing to sign up given what they now face. It was one thing when war was an abstract idea but now that it is a constant state, I don't imagine too many people are chomping at the bit to sign up for it.

[ablbodyed]

4. Not sure you're correct....

about this. That pre-supposes that the (mainly) youths who are the targets of recruiting campaigns are paying attention to what's going on. They are very prone to unquestioning acceptence (as I was, and most of us here on DU were at that age) of the lies and obfuscations presented. Not all, of course, but CERTAINLY enough will sucumb to the lies to fulfill the quotas. Add the economy, especially, for young minorities, and you get an even greater push to enlist. As for only half of respondants saying that they will re-enlist, I think that that number is high. When I was in the Navy (and a cute Little Stud Muffin, much to my amazement, when I look at pictures) in 1968-73 far fewer were willling to re-up.

[ewagner]

7. Add to that

the provision of the famous No Child Left Behind Act which forces schools to turn over the names and addresses of students to military recruiters and you have a perfect receipe for luring minorities and economically disadvantaged youth into the military.

The only encouraging note to this is locally we're finding more kids who are politically/socially aware than we did before. Unfortunately, these are the upper echelon of academic achievers and not the skateboard and video game crowd but maybe they'll have some impact anyway.

[G_j]

10. Class "Warfare"

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=3953
Forbidden Connections: Class, Cowardice, and War
by Paul Street

No Class Analysis

Beneath myths of equal opportunity and rampant upward mobility, the United States is a savagely unequal society with a rigidly hierarchical and authoritarian class structure. As a reflection of that harsh structural reality, it is nearly taboo to speak or write in any engaged and meaningful way about class inequality in the nation's "mainstream" (corporate-dominated) media and politics. That mainstream can host a public debate over the use of race as a preferential factor in college and graduate and professional school admissions. Meanwhile, the richly aristocratic "legacy" system, whereby the affluent children of elite school graduates receive a significant admissions boost at places like Harvard and Princeton, is beyond the pale of polite discussion and acceptable debate.

How interesting during the last year to watch one legacy product - Yale and Harvard graduate George W. Bush - order his Justice Department to intervene against the use of race as a factor in admissions to the University of Michigan. Bush then claimed to embrace affirmative action when the Supreme Court (unanimously filled by graduates of schools tainted by the legacy system), to which (along with the massive disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida) he owes his office, upheld affirmative action.

The mainstream gives vent to disgust over the revelation that America's great reactionary virtue magnate William J. Bennett hypocritically "lost more than $8 million" to the gambling industry during the last ten years. It says nothing about the higher immorality involved in the maintenance of a social structure wherein one man affordably entertains himself by cycling a sum of money greater than six times the lifetime earnings of most of his fellow citizens through slot machines. (US Census Bureau, The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings ).

"Bring Em On Bush"

An excellent example of class's marginalization in mainstream discourse is found in the short-lived brouhaha that emerged when Bush taunted Iraqi guerillas to attack American soldiers earlier this month. "There are some," an angry Bush told reporters on July 2nd "that feel like if they attack us we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case...There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on." (Sean Loughlin, "Bush Warns Militants in Iraq," CNN.com./INSIDE POLITICS, July 3, 2003, available online at http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/ 07/02/sprj.nitop. bush/indext.html).

...more..

[trogdor]

5. These are people who are ignorant of what's going on...

...and desperate for work and a way to get out of the 'hood.'

What the military isn't telling you is how hard they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to fill the ranks with warm bodies. Somebody at the Wash. Post should do a FOIA request for the breakdown in ASVAB scores.

[vi5]

6. I see the point of both of these posts....but still....

You don't have to have full details of the nature of these wars, just simply realize "Hey if I sign up now, there is a much greater chance of me going to war somewhere and being killed than there was 5, 10, 15 years ago."

[G_j]

8. It seems there is no way

they won't be seriously discussing a draft soon.

[MetaTrope]

11. All part of the plan

Goal: Within a year, have a lean U.S. military that will be willing to follow orders in suppressing domestic dissent, without any worries about democracy or morality.

[Don_G]

12. I Wonder If The Percentage Of "Out" Is Higher

It is a Pentagon-funded poll and possible that the troops didn't want to give honest answers without fearing reprisals.

[G_j]

16. no doubt about it

in 'candid' conversation the number of soldiers expressing low moral etc. would be much higher.

[DinahMoeHum]

15. Tee hee, they'd "rather throw up than re-up". . .

old expression from the Vietnam era...

:evilgrin: