Posted on 08/10/2003 10:39:11 AM PDT by B-bone
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The U.S. Army's status as a professional volunteer force devoid of draftees has produced combat troops more likely to follow the moral direction of their superiors than American soldiers of the past, an Army report said on Friday.
In an analysis of what motivated U.S. troops during combat in Iraq, scholars at the U.S. Army War College found that the ground forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom had more idealized notions of their military role than the soldiers of World War II, Korea or Vietnam.
Comments by 40 soldiers from two Army divisions and a Marine division, which analysts collected during interviews in April, echoed Bush administration declarations that U.S. forces were bringing democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people.
"It may be a cornball answer, but believe me, I'm not into all that, but just actually seeing some of them waving and shooting thumbs up. They are like, 'We love you America!'," one infantryman told the analysts.
Leonard Wong, a lead author of the report titled: "Why They Fight: Combat Motivation in The Iraq War," said the findings suggest the Army has made great strides in winning the trust of rank-and-file soldiers since Richard Nixon ended the draft during the Vietnam War in 1973.
"It's really a professional force now, which is funny because society hasn't caught up with it," said Wong, a War College professor of military strategy.
But American society does share soldiers' trust in the Army, according to the report, which cited a Harvard study suggesting that 70 percent of college undergrads now trust the military to do the right thing. A Harris poll said only 20 percent of young Americans in 1975 had great confidence in military leadership.
Modern soldiers also exhibited an understanding of current events and policy debates molded by "the Internet, Fox News and CNN," the report said.
Wong said Army volunteers were more likely than their forebears to express patriotic sentiments, partly because the Army nowadays bombards soldiers with "values-laden" messages of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity and courage from the moment they enter the service.
Or as the War College report put it: "Because our soldiers trust the Army as an institution, they now look to the Army to provide the moral direction for war."
Compare that with a military study from the 1940s, which found one of the greatest taboos among World War II soldiers was "any talk of the flag-waving variety."
The article in our local paper was from the Cox News Service (by George Edmundson). It emphasized the idealism of the soldiers in their fight in Iraq. It portrayed the soldiers as feeling they were there to restore freedom and democracy. This particular (Reuters) story emphasized more the following orders and trusting the Army (although after the previous 8 years that may also be an important factor).
This quote by a soldier is what was emphasized in the other story I read. "It may be a cornball answer, but believe me, I'm not into all that, but just actually seeing some of them waving and shooting thumbs up. They are like, 'We love you America!'," one infantryman told the analysts. "
In light of the doom and gloom of the local news media, this gives an entirely different picture of why we are in Iraq. It dovetails with many of the things Victor Davis Hanson has written.
But then, when you consider that the purpose of American participation in WWII was to make the world safe for Josef Stalin, "any talk of the flag-waving variety" was after all pretty naive . . .
They also did not have a good sized segment of America waging "hate America, hate the military, and love leftist dictators" campaigns.
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