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"After I got home from Afghanistan last year," Price recalled, "I made a commitment to return to entertain the troops overseas. … I couldn't pass up the chance to go with Charlie Daniels. "The people now serving in Iraq face death on a daily basis," Price says, "but if you think morale is low, guess again. "My job was to try to cheer the soldiers up. But in most cases, they didn't need it. … It was an amazing experience. I went to Iraq looking to raise morale. But in the end, it was the soldiers who had done that...

War Protests Will Devastate Morale Says VFW Chief WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- News reports about a large anti-war rally in Washington this weekend are deeply troubling to the new national commander of the nation's largest organization of combat veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. "Our concern isn't with fellow Americans exercising their First Amendment rights to be heard," said Jim Mueller, the VFW's new commander-in-chief. "Our concern is how their political protest messages will be perceived by the 2.2 million American military personnel who protect and defend those freedoms daily," he explained. "Our concern is for...

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...

Jackson flies to Iraq to placate troopsBy Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent(Filed: 12/09/2004) General Sir Mike Jackson, the Army's most senior officer, has flown to Iraq in a bid to quell the rising anger of British troops furious at the revelation that 19 soldiers face allegations of murder and brutality. The Telegraph has learnt that senior officers believe that the unprecedented number of investigations into troops' behaviour is creating a fear of prosecution among soldiers that undermines the Army's operational effectiveness. The visit by Sir Mike, the Chief of the General Staff, begins today and follows the disclosure that a further...

Now, let's talk about the president, the trip to Iraq, and let me give you my analysis of this thing, and we'll get into the nuts and bolts and the details of it. The president's Thanksgiving. It was a morale booster for the military. It was shock and awe for liberals and the media. I mean, we kept hearing about Shock and Awe on the opening night of the Iraq war. Well, shock and awe finally happened on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, Eastern time, when the press aboard Air Force One was able to let loose with what they knew, and...