U.S. Soldiers Complain of Low Morale in Iraq

Yahoo/Reuters ^ | 7/16/03 | Sue Pleming

[arete]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fed up with being in Iraq (news - web sites) and demoralized by their role as peacekeepers in a risky place, a group of U.S. soldiers aired their plight on U.S. television on Wednesday and said they had lost faith in the Army.

Told several times they would be going home only to have their hopes dashed this week, a small group of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, spoke of poor morale and disillusionment with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"If Donald Rumsfeld were here, I'd ask him for his resignation," one disgruntled soldier told ABC's "Good Morning America" show.

Asked by a reporter what his message would be for Rumsfeld, one said: "I would ask him why we are still here. I don't have any clue as to why we are still in Iraq."

About 146,000 U.S. troops are serving amid mounting security threats in postwar Iraq. The death toll has now equaled the number killed in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).

Sgt. Filipe Vega, said they had expected to return home soon after the fall of Baghdad on April 9. "We were told the fastest way back home is through Baghdad and that's what we did. Now we are still here," he complained.

The 3rd Infantry Division was the first U.S. unit to enter Baghdad after driving through southern Iraq through Kuwait.

Sgt. Terry Gilmore described a phone call with his wife Stacey when he told her he would not be coming home soon.

"When I told her she started crying and I almost started crying. I just felt like my heart was broken. I could not figure out...how they could keep us here after they told us we were coming home."

In Washington, a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokeswoman said she understood the frustration, but said morale was still high. "It's obviously a frustrating situation for some of them, but it does not represent the entire 3rd Division."

She added: "When you get down to the individual soldier level, you can clearly see the dedication."

The wives of two of the soldiers appeared on the same show. "Just send my husband home -- send all the soldiers home. They have done the job they were supposed to do," said Rhonda Vega from Hinesville, Georgia.

Stacey Gilmore said U.S. troops were ill-prepared for the post-war phase. "They were told after the fighting ended they were coming home. All I know is that morale is low and they are just hanging in there, sticking through it."

((Writing by Sue Pleming, editing by Jackie Frank; Reuters Messaging Sue.Pleming.reuters.com@reuters.net)

[arete]

Someone is getting restless. I hope they can get used to it cause we're going to be there for years.

Richard W.

[GraniteStateConservative]

A half hour after the blast, the truck was still burning on the road near Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, site of Saddam's most notorious prison. The convoy, made up of reservists from a supply unit based in Puerto Rico, had been heading to a U.S. base near the Jordanian border.

"We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough," said Spc. Carlos McKenzie, a member of the convoy.

[Pikamax]

said it in an earlier thread, thankfully these people were not around in WW2 or we would all be in big trouble.

[GranpaVet]

No doubt about it - this is bad whichever way you look at it. Those troops need a break. Does anyone think we may end up with a draft? Would it be a good thing? What do people think on this? I just want some rotating out and some sense of when this might end for the troops and for the country.
Meanwhile: pray. Pray for their safety and their morale and for clean water and decent food and a safe return with the job they have done so well finished.

[arete]

said it in an earlier thread, thankfully these people were not around in WW2 or we would all be in big trouble.

It's a real reach to compare Nazi Germany with today's Iraq.

Richard W.

[Psalm 73]

"If Donald Rumsfeld were here, I'd ask him for his resignation," one disgruntled soldier told ABC's "Good Morning America"

Isn't this border-line insubordination? Just curious as to what's allowed in the ranks today.

[YOMO]

A soldier's lot is to BITCH. They have been doing it for centuries. When the chips are down though they pull together and take care of business. Of course their moral is down. What moronic journalist can't find someone somewhere bitching about something. Seperation from families is probable the most important thing. After that take your pick, Heat, living conditions, pay, location, danger, long hours, and percieved lack of support from those on the home front.
Once this is over there will be a sense of fierce pride in each one and dimmed memories of the hardships they went through. Send the IDIOT MEDIA back home to cover some Country Club Election or just make up some stories but leave our Armed Forces alone to do their job.
God Belss the Military in harms way.

[Reagan is King]

said it in an earlier thread, thankfully these people were not around in WW2 or we would all be in big trouble.

No kidding. I understand they want to come home but until they can they need to tell the soldiers to shut up and quit talking to reporters who are only looking for negative stories anyway. We didn't fight and win the battle to run home and let the Islamists take over and create another terrorist state.

[NutCrackerBoy]

It rends my heart that after such a valiant campaign, these guys have to stand around and get shot at.

The Saddam loyalists have nothing to lose because once they come out of the woodwork, they will be (rightly) executed as war criminals. And they gain financially from staying loyal.

Are we killing them in sufficient quantities? Are they actually recruiting new guerillas?

The naysayers predict quagmire every time, and so finally this time they are getting their I-told-you-so.

[CONSERVE]

These people whining must be from the army of one the old soldiers know you have to give all to be all you can be.

[Pikamax]

I am not downplaying that morale is down and with the heat, fighting still going on that they won't be some complaining and bitching, but whoever those goofs that ABC hunted down to get on television( I have a feeling that the wives tipped them off beforehand)should be brought home, and kicked out of the Army.

Now you are going to see people take this idiot's quote and say see America is a paper tiger, just keep poking them and they will start to whine and want to go home with their tails between their legs.

[Betteboop]

I think the hardest thing is that they have been told twice, already, that they will be going home on such and such a date. They'd be better off it they were told you'll know you're going home when you get on the plane!!
A woman I work with has a fiance in the 3rd ID. She's been on an emotional roller coaster for months. I think the less they know, the better.

[joesnuffy]

Instead of sending in replacements to give the guys a break...looks like they are being held back for something else?
The real problem is ...telling someone they are going home if they accomplish a task...they accomplish the task and then you tell them...you changed your mind they arent going home..
Then you make another promise of sending them home and break that one...
Better to not promise a thing or put them on a rotation schedule 6 months 8 months set up a replacement depot and a staging training area...
I realize they are trying to avoid this at all costs and want units to come over intact and leave intact as much as possible..
You cant break promises and exect it to not impact morale

[dts32041]

You want protection what is that weapon you are carrying, Seesh Clintoized soliders.

[Cobra64]

Exactly!

[Cobra64]

Now you are going to see people take this idiot's quote and say see America is a paper tiger, just keep poking them and they will start to whine and want to go home with their tails between their legs.

And... it will spawn MORE bushwhack attacks on our guys. I call this the "Hanoi Jane" syndrome.

[Im Your Huckleberry]

I don't blame them a bit. They're worried about being killed everyday...they're living in a stone age, medieval, backwards country where these sand maggot barbarians are throwing stones at them, provoking them, and then taking potshots at them at night.

If I say anymore I'll be banned. I'm done.

[Khurkris]

Agree...If they ain't bitchin' they ain't payin attention.

[Paraclete]

"An Army of One" comes home to roost?

[SENTINEL]

Bull, they need to "cowboy up" and shut up. I spent nearly nine months in theater during GWI, and was deployed there on the tail end of a 6 month stint in Okinawa. WWII, Korea, and Vietnam vets had it much worse. If you ask me, this shows only a pathetic lack of discipline in the ranks of the US Army. I doubt they would get the same response from the ranks of the Marine Corps where training intensity and discipline has not waivered over the decades.

[CONSERVE]

As far as I know the Army has always been huury up and wait.
If they would have never started the feel good basic training crap a lot of this wouldn't be going on.

[Captain Kirk]

Bitching has also been the job of armchair freeper warriors for quite some time as well.

[Euro-American Scum]

said it in an earlier thread, thankfully these people were not around in WW2 or we would all be in big trouble.

Hate to burst your bubble, chief, but when things appear (italics for emphasis) to get bogged down with no end in sight, fighting men get disillusioned and tend to bitch. It's a fact of life, especially when they get used for taget practice and start taking needless casualties.

I'm sure we'll be able to find you at the gate to Travis AFB with your peace sign medallion, American flag shirt and head band, flipping off the troops as they come through and yelling "Baby killer!" seeing as how they don't measure up to your extremely high standards of discipline and loyalty.

[archy]

You want protection what is that weapon you are carrying, Seesh Clintoized soliders.

They're not akllowed to carry them loaded, according to the e-mails I've gotten from one 3rd Infantry Division tanker from my old unit. Some officers are concerned that if they have ammo all the time, the number of suicides is going to take off dramatically, and in that climate where a solsdier figures his death is preferable to his future, they frequently take a despised officer or senior NCO *lifer* along for the ride over to the Other Side.

It's not yet come to that point, at least for the most part. But it's getting there.

-archy-/-

[Steel Wolf]

I'm sure those people were around in WWII, you just didn't have reporters with hidden agendas trying to pick off every dimwitted PFC into making a fool out of himself. These reporters have their own motives in mind, and it's not to find the truth. I'm sure that these guys are more than tired of missing their families, sweating under 120 degree weather, and being shot at by lunatics.

OF COURSE you're going to find people who aren't happy, and have some things to say that won't sound good on the six o clock news. I know a guy who got back from Afghanistan and went off on a passing drill sergeant who saw him outside without his hat on and tried to correct him. After dealing with people who actively tried to kill you, it loosens you up some in the verbal department. After living their own personal Catch-22 (great book), some people are bound to say anything.

[Captain Kirk]

Your comparing World War II, a true war for national defense, with a futile world policing/nation building/anti-guerrilla war operation in a medieval hell hole like Iraq? Give me a break.

[VOA]

A soldier's lot is to BITCH.

"Willie and Joe" are alive, well, and blowing off steam to clueless journalists.

Somewhere Bill Mauldin is smiling.

[arete]

F A L L U J A H, Iraq, July 16— The sergeant at the 2nd Battle Combat Team Headquarters pulled me aside in the corridor. "I've got my own 'Most Wanted' list," he told me.

He was referring to the deck of cards the U.S. government published, featuring Saddam Hussein, his sons and other wanted members of the former Iraqi regime.

"The aces in my deck are Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz," he said.

A Big Letdown

Richard W.

[Captain Kirk]

Maudlin was a journalist around soldiers who were fighting a true war of national defense not a futile "pacification" war with no light at the end to the tunnel. It is like comparing apples and oranges.

[squidly]

A soldier's lot is to BITCH. They have been doing it for centuries.

Quite right. Finding a soldier who's willing to complain isn't a news story. They're easy to find at their home base during peacetime, too.

My above statement isn't meant to belittle the problems the troops are faced with, but such problems and such complaining are, unfortunately, to be expected right now.

[Arkinsaw]

Someone is getting restless. I hope they can get used to it cause we're going to be there for years.

Why? Nation building? That idea was a bad one during the last decade and it hasn't improved much in this one.

[Dazedcat]

Yeah, well there you go. "Armchair warrior" is a very accurate description of what goes on here and in the real world. I don't really blame American troops for expressing their views. They're stuck in another shithole without an end in sight, and they're still DYING on a daily basis.

Many people warned about a post war "quagmire" in Iraq. I refused to believe them. I guess the lessons of history are never learned fully, are they.

[VOA]

The real problem is ...telling someone they are going home if they accomplish a task...
they accomplish the task and then you tell them...you changed your mind they
arent going home..
Then you make another promise of sending them home and break that one...

It's not as deadly-serious as being in Iraq, but you've also described the general
treatment of many people in doctoral programs...
I'd suggest none of the current soldiers registering their complaints go to
graduate school...because they are likely to have a non-violent "deja vu all over again"
experience.

(The wife of a family friend told her husband's Ph.D. advisor she'd be coming
to see him with a shotgun after "graduation day" had been delayed a year and
a half. Graduation occurred at the
end of that semester.)

[Blood of Tyrants]

Until they get Saddam and cut off the head of the snake, the violence will continue.

[Steel Wolf]

I'm comparing being away from home and shot at on a regular basis in Europe with being away from home and being shot at on a regular basis in the Middle East.

Do I think that a bunch of draftees from the forties complained less than a bunch of volunteers from the 00's? No. I just think that the media is a different animal now, and has no self restraint when it smells blood.

[Callahan]

Sounds like these soldiers thought the military was a self-help program instead of a fighting force. Sure it's grimy, hot and miserable. That's why it's called a "war" instead of a "picnic." If this kid wants to go home, send him home--with a pacifier in his mouth and a thermometer up his @ss.

[McGavin999]

WOW, the media actually managed to find a couple of guys who, after fighting for weeks, are in constant danger, wearing full body armor in 115 degree heat, that are cranky. Imagine that.

These guys shouldn't be the one drawing wrath, it's the media punk who sought them out, had so little understanding of what they're going through, who exposed them to the very real possibility of disciplinary action. It was the media punks who sought out the wives who are in an emotional firestorm, who are scared to death their loved ones won't come home, and exploited their fears for the camera.

It is the MEDIA who is lower than low in this and I hope one of those stray bullets finds it's way to rid us of as many of these scum buckets as possible.

[Captain Kirk]

No...I suspect these people joined because they wanted to defend the U.S. not participate in a nanny-state world policing operation.

[arete]

Until they get Saddam and cut off the head of the snake, the violence will continue.

That, in my opinion, is propaganda flim flam. It is now a widely accepted excuse for the continued violence -- but it is still an excuse. Plenty of snakes in that area who are independent operators.

Richard W.

[GranpaVet]

Stop picking on the troops. they need support not attacks on their ability to do the job. Soldiers have always complained and groused. Part of the job - the terrible job they are doing for US. Let em grouse but take it with a shovel of salt and get them the support and relief they actually need. Stop tearing them down. If we start destroying their morale from staeside they will start on each other. happened before. happens in every real bad situation. And that is the worst. So let em grouse but put it in context. tell them the truth about what is happening. Get them roated. Get them supplied. Get their families any help needed.

[GranpaVet]

"Army of one" - always thought that a trrible motto. In the army you have to take care of the guy next to you and then let him take care of you. This individualism is nonsense when it comes to soldiering. Who thought up that sloagn anyways?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Maybe, but while Saddam is still alive people who benifited from his dictatorship will want to return to it. Once he is dead, they will lose hope and maybe support a different party in hopes that they can restore a Sadddam-like government.

[Steel Wolf]

Yep, I'm sure that happened, and a lot worse. Why don't we interview the guy who rolled grenades into the 101st's CP and see what his views on the war are?

I'm sure it's very easy to find guys who are tired of being away from home, scared, tired, and bored. If you think everybody who served in WWII was a happy, smiling, patriotic robot from start to finish, then so be it. You're all welcome to praise the warriors of the Greatest Generation, and spit on the rest. If you don't already realize how the media has changed over the last sixty years, then I won't be able to convince you in my post.

[tongue-tied]

Hear hear, and well put!

Like the recent report of a reservist bitching and saying he didn't "sign up for this" but instead joined because he "wanted some schooling". Well slap-me-silly-with-a-dip-shit-stick but fighting wars is what the military does.

The media simply want to highlight the (understandably) low morale. The Army higher ups should never have given them a "date", simply a "window" under some conditions that they'd be leaving.

[GranpaVet]

Yep. WW2 was not one big happy camp of automatoms out of a Stephen Ambrose movie adaption. There were times when morale hit rock bottom. Same with the civilians in the Blitz too. It's part of knowing that it's a real tough mission. I am angry with those armchair warriors who said it would be a "cakewalk". The victory was tough but easy compared with this half-light world of hostile occupation. I am hopeful about the new iraqi Council that Bremer just set up. Maybe, just maybe...it can have some crdibility with the people and can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. And hopefully they will do it peacefully for a while.

[GranpaVet]

On the topic of Marines. I here that they may be sent out to do some of this easy peace-keeping you write about. Now that....well....words escape me. What a misuse of forces. What do you think?

[DoctorMichael]

We need to get a little rough with these clowns so as to get our boys home.

1) Looters will be shot on sight.

2) Anyone found with munitions will be shot on sight.

3) Anyone not smiling at our troops and instead is found scowling, sneering, frowning, disagreeing, gesticulating in an angry manner, and raising their voice to one of our troops will be shot on sight.

4) Etc.

Get the picture, Achmed?

[GranpaVet]

Your comparison is right BUT for the soldier over there at the time it is much the same. Hell.

[GranpaVet]

Yep. Bill Maudlin and Bruce Bairnsfather had it right. This is all so much smoke so long as we are doing right by them.