Soldier Blues - US military has a serious morale problem

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/43/we_595_02b.html

October 21, 2003

Soldier Blues

It's becoming more apparent every day that the U.S. military has a serious morale problem. Depression, mild and servere, is plaguing the troops, sometimes with fatal consequences.

A recent survey by Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for soldiers and government civilians abroad, revealed that over one-third of soldiers rate their morale as low, or very low. Suicides of U.S. servicemen in Iraq are running up to three times the usual rate, and news headlines bring daily news of U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq.

As stories of low morale and soldier suicides began to surface last week, the Bush administration decided that news from Iraq was being negatively filtered by the media, leaving Americans under the misperception that things aren't going well. Bush said he wanted to bypass the filter and tell the news of real progress directly to the American people. But while some things in Iraq may indeed be getting better, troop morale isn't one of them.
After receiving hundreds of letters from unhappy troops, Stars and Stripes was conducted an "unscientific" survey, questioning nearly 2000 soldiers in Iraq. One-third reported that their mission was "not clearly defined" or "not at all defined". Thirty-one percent said that the war in Iraq was of "little value" or of "no value at all."

Another reason why soldiers' spirits are down is probably that they're not fully equipped for combat. Around 27 percent of the Army surveyed rated their chain of command's ability to get them supplies as "not good" or "poor." According to the AP, nearly 30,000 American troops in Iraq still have not been issued the newest body armor, which has ceramic plates to stop rifle rounds. The body armor won't be delivered until December, more than eight months after the war began. One soldier said that the vest they were given, "couldn't stop a rock." Stars and Stripes reports on the lack of appropriate supplies:

MORE.........

[theivoryqueen]

1. No Respect

The Admin's idea of solving the "dead soldier" issue:

(From the Washington Post federal pages today)

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.

(Is it any wonder morale is low???)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55816-2003Oct20.html

[Kusala]

2. so much for a hero's welcome

what's worse..Alleged spitting on troops coming home alive(as in Vietnam), or soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice being ignored, by their own government, and hidden, from the american public?

The freepers will try to tell you it's A) (and try to persuade you it was perpetrated in large amounts by liberals), and pretend B) isn't happening.

[theivoryqueen]

4. agreed

[theophilus]

3. Our political "wizards" are like the one in Oz.......

Pay no attention to the things behind the curtain! Whether it Mr. Ashcroft covering up nudity on beautiful
statuary or Mr. Rove covering up the death of our young men and women. This is the MO of our
leadership. No freedom of information. No true media coverage by the mainstream folks.
Darkness. Ignorance. Don't look behind that curtain! Move along, nothing to see here.

How pathetic and tragic. Democracy cannot exist without the light being shone everywhere and
people caring enough to look.

[Bandit]

5. Stars and Stripes reports on the lack of appropriate supplies:

Isn't Halliburton the company in charge of getting supplies to the troops? It seems to me every area that Halliburton is in charge of there are major problems. I think it is just "Take the Money and Run" Why-o-Why don't Conservatives "Support our Troops"?

[fknobbit]

7. Haliburton got no bid contracts because they were

Best "best positioned" to respond rapidly to the troop needs. What a frikin joke.

[wadestock]

6. The volunteer Army was the greatest thing in the world.....

until Bush abused the privelege.

A well trained, highly motivated Army, a volunteer army like we had was the best thing for this country.....provided.....it was used sparingly and with respect.

Serious questions will no doubt emerge in terms of whether a volunteer army can sustain such abuse.

Thankfully, we all got spoiled with the volunteer army and probably won't tolerate going in the direction of a draft.

So....we can all hope the ultimate irony will prevail....Bush and Co. will shoot themselves in the foot by exploiting this great resource...and we will go back to the "fast and light force" to project US strength WHERE NECESSARY.