Majority of Soldiers Say Iraq Morale Low

Austin American-Statesman ^ | July 20, 2005 | Robert Burns - AP Military Writer

[WestTexasWend]

WASHINGTON — A majority of U.S. soldiers in Iraq say morale is low, according to an Army report that finds psychological stress is weighing particularly heavily on National Guard and Reserve troops.

Still, soldiers' mental health has improved from the early months of the insurgency, and suicides have declined sharply, the report said. Also, substantially fewer soldiers had to be evacuated from Iraq for mental health problems last year.

(snip)

The report said 54 percent of soldiers rated their units' morale as low or very low. The comparable figure in a year-earlier Army survey was 72 percent. Although respondents said "combat stressors" like mortar attacks were higher in the most recent survey, "noncombat stressors" like uncertain tour lengths were much lower, the report said.

[WestTexasWend]

Searched but didn't find this posted. Amazing negative spin here...even for the AP.

[WestTexasWend]

The actual report >>>>>

http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat_ii/OIF-II_REPORT.pdf

[kaktuskid]

Soldiers always b!tch...even in WW2..nothing new!

[nmh]

This warms the heart of every "terrorist", er, I mean liberal, ah no I do mean "terrorist". Liberals want to believe the same and share some of the "terrorist" reasons for being against the war.

[garyhope]

Austin, the Berkeley of Texas.

Discount it.

[Fenris6]

I sure that having US Senator Durbin compare them to Nazi's wasn't a moral booster either...

[Prince Caspian]

So, in other words, morale level is increasing.

[lormand]

Austin American Statesmen = Aweful Un-American Mistatement

The first paper of a major American City I lived in which I refused to subscribe to.

[federal]

the Berkeley of Texas.

As well as a AP writer, this has as much credibility as anything Al Jazzera would publish.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Assuming the premise is true (may or may not be) could the cause just possibly be the anti-American onslaught that the MSM foists on us day in day out including the AAS?

Can you say self-fulfilling prophecy? Tear down the country and the military and then run articles on how morale is low.

Bunch of traitors.

[Enchante]

Now the great Senator Durbin can give a speech denouncing the low morale of our Nazi troops and demanding that they be brought home immediately. "See, it's just what I predicted" said Senator Dim-bulb, "our abusive Nazi troops have low morale and must be brought home at once." /sarcasm

[Army Air Corps]

Ah, more grade a codswollop from the Austin-Amerikan Workers' Daily (AKA - Pravda, Texas Edition). These folks wept, verily, when the USSR crumbled. They will latch on anything that remotley supports their Marxist-Leninist worldview. Now, they have included Islamofacism to the list of anti-western "-isms" that they adore.

[SF Republican]

In San Diego at boot camp we pretty much felt the same way in July.

[Alia]

... not even to mention that temperatures in Iraq are in excess of that going on in Phoenix, 111, with folks dropping like flies! EXTREME weather is definitely a contributing factor to morale.

[usurper]

Majority of Soldiers Say Iraq Morale Low

The report said 54 percent of soldiers rated their units' morale as low or very low. The comparable figure in a year-earlier Army survey was 72 percent.

Shouldn’t this article be titled:

Soldiers in Iraq Say Morale up 18% in Spite of MSM Best Efforts.

[danny5555]

They are fighting a war, of course thet arent going to be happy! Yeppers!

[Jackknife]

Austin, the Berkeley of Texas. Discount it.

My thoughts exactly.

[HiJinx]

Open the link and read the report, all. The Austin paper may be guilty of gloating, but the report was commissioned by the Surgeon General.

Key figures from the Executive Summary:

---

The MHAT-II found that like OIF-I Soldiers, OIF-ll Soldiers are experiencing numerous combat stressors. However, noncombat deployment stressors related to quality of life
have shown considerable improvement since OIF-I. Deployment length remains a top concern for OIF-ll Soldiers. Fifty-four percent of OIF-ll Soldiers reported their unit morale as low or very low. However, unit morale was significantly higher in OIF-ll compared with OIF-I, when 72% of Soldiers reported low or very low unit morale.

---

Down from 72% to 54%. And these are mostly non-combat soldiers as reported later in the document. And things like heat and boredom are some of the stressors listed. And these are frequently short Mental Health (MH) episodes, not long-term MH problems.

As usual, nuggets of bad news are hyped without regard to the overall picture.

[oh8eleven]

I went to Vietnam in the summer of 1967 and my morale was rock bottom too. "Holy cow, 13 months of this sh*t?"

[snowman1]

If the only thing the MSM reports is the bad sh-- my morale would be low too. It would probably go way up if they would only report on some of the good things going on over there. My nephew just got back and he was incensed over the MSM.