Troop Morale

I keep hearing people talk about troop morale.

Here are a few thoughts of mine on this subject.

Robert Baer, a twenty year veteran officer in the Directorate of Operations at the CIA (more here) recently said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Mathews, that not only is recruitment down at the CIA, but many old colleagues are calling him, asking for his aid in finding work outside the agency, as they no longer trust a government who will, legally or not (it may not have been illegal, but it was morally wrong), throw away one of their own, as was done when the political move was made against Joe Wilson, by outing the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame. This was clearly done as an act of vengeance against Wilson, and to send a message to anyone else who would dare to tell the truth which would contradict the propaganda being spread by the Bush administration.

The lies, and the deceit, the twisting of the truth, and the premeditated manipulation of the facts has caused a degradation in trust among most of those who serve our country, whether in military uniform, at the CIA, or in various other non-combat support roles. We are learning more about this as time goes on, and I for one will be watching George Tenent on Meet the Press this weekend, as well as reading Tenents new book as soon as possible.

The war in Iraq has evolved into a civil war, and we have become sitting ducks right in the middle of the combat zone. There is no clearly defined enemy, and our troops on the ground can trust no one except each other. Some of the Iraqi military and police forces who work along side our troops by day, are secretly passing information on to those who are propelling the civil war, and who are planting the road side bombs and firing the RPGs. A child who takes candy from a soldier or Marine one day, may be helping his father and older brother plant a bomb the next, yet the president and his minions still try to spin this fiasco as our war on terrorism. That is not true. These people fighting their own civil war have their own agenda, and other than getting us out of the way, they could care less what we do, as long as it's not in their country (the terrorist behind 9/11 are not the same ones we are fighting in Iraq, and if there are some of them there, they came about when the borders collapsed after we invaded, yet Just last week I heard Bush in a speech saying that we have to fight the terrorists over there so we wont have to fight them here at home (yes, he still says this as if to believe that if he says it enough it will become true). The three factions who are fighting each other in Iraq have been doing so for centuries, and will continue to do so now that the stakes are even higher (control of territories, and oil revenues). All the while the terrorists who actually backed the attacks on us are, with a few exceptions who we have captured or killed, alive and well and living in the remote sections of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and a few other nearby countries. The troops already know this, and being dishonest with them in order to raise morale while they are being killed in a meaningless war would be just as bad as being dishonest to the American people in general, and it would backfire big time as it would simply add insult to injury.

Moral cannot be built based upon propaganda. It must be built, and maintained by truth, and a real mission. I thought that these things are what we were supposed to be fighting for, and when we fight for any other reason, we are only kidding ourselves, and our troops know it, just as we, the voting, paying public does.

I have been keeping my eye on the appeal to redress congress which is an appeal to congress to support our efforts in Iraq. It has been around since February 12 of this year, and was even featured on Michelle Malkin (yes, I read her from time to time). All active duty, and active duty reserve troops are eligible to sign it, and since we all know how viral something like this can be, especially within the closely knit military community, it does not appear to have much support (only 2605 e signatures to date. That’s just under 2% of the roughly 140,000 troops deployed in Iraq) Military members are barred from speaking out against the war, but when allowed to voice support, their silence speaks volumes.

Troop morale is not down because democrats want to bring them home. It’s down because the troops see the futility of their efforts. It’s down because there is no clearly defined mission, or enemy. It’s down because they were originally asked to fight without proper body, and vehicle armor. It’s down because they hear about the atrocious conditions that used to exist at Walter Reed. It’s down because they too see the total lack of planning that went into the war in the first place. It’s down because they are waking up, and hear the same spin and deceptive manipulation of the facts (Bush still talks about making progress in Iraq, but the troops on the ground don’t see it that way).

In my opinion it’s an insult to the intelligence of our men and women in uniform to try and build moral with no defined mission, no defined enemy, and no winnable solution in sight. It’s like holding a pep rally for a basket ball team in a school where the gymnasium seats are busted out, floor boards on the court are popping up, the ceiling is collapsing above the rafters, and all the team has to play with is a punctured basket ball, and no money for a new one!

It’s ludicrous to talk about morale at this stage of the game. High morale is created when you have a defined and necessary mission that we can all get behind and support, and it is maintained when our efforts and sacrifices prove to be worthy, producing positive results as the mission plays out. This may take time, but if there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel, and the mission itself is deamed to be worthy of the sacrifices being made, morale will be high, for the most part. High Morale is also maintained when our government tells the truth about why we are engaged in the mission, and when they do everything in their power to support the lives of those on the front lines, and their families back home. We have had none of these things since day one of this war, and I would be willing to bet that over 90% of our troops would say the same thing if they could. 

Comments

[Andy Swan]

Interesting take. Kind of odd that Reid's comments were not addressed, but that somehow liar Joe Wilson made it into the conversation.....

[VA refinance]

Thank you for your tak, it is always intersting to hear what others think. it does make one stop and think what really is happening in Iraq