Article

2005-07-20 Iraq-Jordan

Majority of Soldiers Say Iraq Morale Low

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Posted by bgrebel9 2005-07-20 16:50|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The report said reasons for the improvement in mental health are not clear.

They know they won't have John F'n Kerry as their Commander in Chief?

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-07-20 19:20|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-07-20 19:20|| Front Page Top

#2 Articles: The initial inquiry was triggered in part by an unusual surge in suicides among soldiers in Iraq in July 2003. Wednesday's report said the number of suicides in Iraq and Kuwait declined from 24 in 2003 to nine last year.

Interestingly enough, July 2003 was before the guerrilla war started ramping up in earnest.

Posted by Zhang Fei">Zhang Fei 2005-07-20 19:52|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2005-07-20 19:52|| Front Page Top

#3 Man, there's a shuddersome idea; I wonder what morale they'd have now if he was?

By the way, if the election had gone to Kerry, today would have marked the end of his first six months in office-- and we'd be reading great green gobs of gooey, fawning, reverential bullshit in the MSM about how much "better" things are with him in office.

Posted by Dave D. 2005-07-20 19:53|| 2005-07-20 19:53|| Front Page Top

#4 At least they have morale. In Vietnam the answer to the question, "how's morale?" was "what's morale". Big improvement.

Posted by FeralCat 2005-07-20 20:07|| 2005-07-20 20:07|| Front Page Top

#5 Man, there's a shuddersome idea; I wonder what morale they'd have now if he was?

I'm sure annual visits by toothsome two-America's VP John Edwards, bucking up Sec Def Wesley Clark would bring morale ....er... nevermind

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-07-20 20:10|| 2005-07-20 20:10|| Front Page Top

#6 Is the reporter capable of discerning between low morale and normal soldierly bitching & moaning? And how does this report of low morale square with the high re-enlistment numbers we've seen elsewhere?

Posted by trailing wife 2005-07-20 20:19|| 2005-07-20 20:19|| Front Page Top

#7 Even in WW2, I'll bet any survey would have reported low morale. That's the normal state for troops in a combat zone. Are they suppose to be saying "Oh, this is so much fun! Better than sex, better than a cruise, better than etc! How ridiculous.

Posted by FeralCat 2005-07-20 20:25|| 2005-07-20 20:25|| Front Page Top

#8 The reporter failed to ask the one question guaranteed to get a unanimous reponse:

"How many of you would happily shoot me?"

Posted by .com 2005-07-20 21:10|| 2005-07-20 21:10|| Front Page Top

#9 Wasn't there a Marine general who was dissed for saying that it was fun to kill terrorists?
So which way do you want it?

How does the suicide rate compare to those of people in other stressful jobs like NYPD officer or... hmmmm... AP journalists?

Posted by True German Ally 2005-07-20 21:16|| 2005-07-20 21:16|| Front Page Top

#10 Do soldiers, in peace or war, in the US or overseas, ever say "Things are great! We're so 'appy!"

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2005-07-20 21:37|| home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-07-20 21:37|| Front Page Top

#11 Feral, I don't think that is correct. Morale in the units I had contact with (except Americal) was almost always high (69 thru 71). These were all infantry units. Things weren't perfect and rosy, but they weren't bad. Americal seemed jinxed.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2005-07-20 21:47|| 2005-07-20 21:47|| Front Page Top

#12 "And if morale's not low now, we'll keep running articles like this until it is."

Posted by Matt 2005-07-20 21:51|| 2005-07-20 21:51|| Front Page Top

#13 17-23% is normal for the normal population. In a combat zone, out of contact with family, strange environment, people shooting at you, that number seems pretty damn good.
Moral is always lower for overseas deployment, especially in a combat zone. In the Bosnia, the people I talked to that were there said moral was lower than dirt, around 90% with really low moral. Typical with peacekeeping missions.

Posted by mmurray821 2005-07-20 21:53|| 2005-07-20 21:53|| Front Page Top

#14 And let's not forget that re-enlistment in combat units is at a record high.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-07-20 21:57|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-07-20 21:57|| Front Page Top

#15 Bosnia must have REALLY sucked.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2005-07-20 21:59|| 2005-07-20 21:59|| Front Page Top

#16 Vietnamization increased US soldier morale in that war. As did use of the airforce in broad targeting (you should have been elsewhere, civilians). Who knows? I forsee changes in the terms of engagement.

Posted by Vlad the Muslim Impaler 2005-07-20 22:12|| 2005-07-20 22:12|| Front Page Top

#17 9 suicides for 170,000 tropps (Iraq+Kuwait estimate), gives a rate of 5.3 in 2004. The US male suicide rate in 2002 was 17.9 per 100,000. Something is wrong. Seriously wrong. The troops are much too happy and will be ordered to be 3.37 times more miserable, in line with US averages.

BTW, what's the suicide rate for lying scumbag journalists?

Posted by ed 2005-07-20 22:14|| 2005-07-20 22:14|| Front Page Top

#18 Suicide rates are a tricksy thing to try and draw any conclusions from. In my previous life, I was a broadcaster, assigned to AFKN-Seoul in the early 1990ies. Part of my gig there was to do a daily 5 minute radio news show, and one bright morning, my NCOIC called my attention to the fact that there had been an unusually high recorded rate of suicides among US forces assigned to the ROK during the previous year.(the figure was, as I recall, about 7 or 8.) He thought there might be a story in it, so I went along to CID, and tried to work out what it might be. I spent a couple of hours with the CID commander, and his chief investigator trying to work out exactly what--- if anything--- might be going on. (Amazing, I could get face-time with a full colonel and a WO, just by being with the media, even the in-house variety!) They brought out their records on every one, and...there was nothing that they or I could figure out an angle on. Except that only one of them was what we were always told was the stereotypical suicide hazard-- a young troop, in a crisis, and overtaken by despair, depression and access to serious weaponry. All the others were mid-rank officers, or senior NCOs... and for one of them, they could find no reason at all. (In retrospect, when they do a psychological post-mortem, they can usually find some reason for despair, in one case it still was a mystery) We eventually surmised that in a place like the ROK, the junior troops are very carefully watched, and closely supervised... it's the midrank people who weren't so supervised, and had a modicum of privacy, who could off themselves without anyone taking notice of the warning signs, and feeling they had to tell someone.
And no, we never did come to any conclusion about why there were several more suicides that year, than in the several years before. Sometimes, s**t just happens.

Posted by Sgt. Mom">Sgt. Mom 2005-07-20 22:15|| www.sgtstryker.com]">[www.sgtstryker.com] 2005-07-20 22:15|| Front Page Top

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