U.S. Troop Morale Down, Mr. Obama: Win War or Bring Troops Home

by Standtall | November 14, 2009 at 08:11 am

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Afghanistan U.S. Troop Morale Down, Mr. Obama: “Win The War or Bring Troops Home!”

Troop morale in Afghanistan has been a topic of great discussion. Army Chaplains have said troop morale is down recently and now USA Today in November 14, 2009 story reports U.S. Afghanistan troop morale has fallen.

U.S. Afghanistan troop morale has fallen? This only makes sense. The longer this war drags on, keeping these soldiers thousand of miles away from home, the lower the morale and larger the increase in depression rates.

After all this centuries’ U.S. military is largely comprised of U.S. Army, Marine, Air Force and Navy National Guard. These men and woman comprising the U.S. National Guard are on forced tours of duty thousands of miles away from their U.S. homeland, families, love interests(male or female), spouses, children, civilian jobs and normal every day lives.

This war needs to wrap up by either bridging comprehensive fire power and what-ever-else -it-takes to overwhelm the Taliban or by shipping our troops on home and letting the Afghans fight their own war.

Which way is it going to be Mr. Obama?

Let us learn from history as this situation is starting to drag into another depressing Vietnam.

(AP) — Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday.

It was the first time since 2004 that soldier suicides in Iraq did not increase. Self-inflicted deaths in Afghanistan were on track to go up this year.

Though findings of two new battlefield surveys are similar in several ways to the last ones taken in 2007, they come at a time of intense scrutiny on Afghanistan as President Barack Obama struggles to craft a new war strategy and planned troop buildup. There is also new focus on the mental health of the force since a shooting rampage at Fort Hood last week in which an Army psychiatrist is charged.

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hussain

at 09:01 on November 14th, 2009

If the US drags on its occupation of Afghanistan, not only morale of its troops will keep dwindling but the whole region will be engulfed in flames, which will in no way beneficial for the world peace because the US occupation of Afghanistan and connivance with Indians in perpetration of terrorism inside Pakistan is going to the two South Asian nuclear arch rivals against each other. Only Pakistani rulers are saving India, otherwise even a layman in Pakistan knows now that India is behind terrorists who are killing and maiming innocent Pakistanis and that the US is also hands in glove with India in this bloodshed of innocent Pakistanis. Interestingly, the Afghan Taliban who are fighting the occupation forces in Afghanistan have come in open and have made it clear that they have link whatsoever with the terrorists who involved in suicide and car bombings in Pakistan.

YankeeJim

at 11:07 on November 14th, 2009

Pakistan is out of control and that poses a great risk to the region and the world. The US is in Afghanistan because the country harbored al Qaeda. If that had not been the case, Americans could care less about it.

Pakistan had shown signs of being able to coexist with the rest of the peaceful world, though trending toward radicalism and conjuring up fights with India is nonsensical. Get grip before it is too late.

albertacowpoke

at 09:48 on November 14th, 2009

Troop moral is affected by many factors, one is multiple return tours to Iraq and Iran, the uncertainty about the goal of the conflict in Afghanistan, the toll of the families and personal relationships and PTSD.

Many of these soldiers suffer in silence, as they don.t want to let down their buddies.

Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are particularly hard on them.

YankeeJim

at 11:09 on November 14th, 2009

There is nothing more frustrating than being in the military and being asked to fight for a cause that is increasingly uncertain. Americans should have learned this lesson from the Vietnam fiasco. Now, we have the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes. Take a big leap, President Obama, pull out.

aurealeus

at 16:51 on November 14th, 2009

Americans did learn... unfortunately for "Americans" and the MidEast region, the world elitists and war financiers have not... and never will when their only cause is to control and profit.

albertacowpoke

at 07:27 on November 15th, 2009

The return tours in the first sentence are of course to Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately I can.t edit it anymore.

Hugh Askew

at 10:22 on November 14th, 2009

"...the uncertainty about the goal of the conflict in Afghanistan"

Nailed that one squarely, cowboy.

a211423

at 11:44 on November 14th, 2009

Troop morale

Perhaps the entertainment industry can develop some shows like Bob Hope used to do at the holidays for the troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not going to solve the overarching problems of uncertainty, but at least they would have something to puncutate the holidays.

albertacowpoke

at 15:02 on November 14th, 2009

Those USO shows you are talking about don't affect troops in FOB Bases. Really only Bagram Airbase and Kandahar Airfield provide the security for these type of shows. The grunts are busy grunting, sort to speak.

Babel-Fish

at 12:54 on November 14th, 2009

Want to see the actual press release, hmmmmn

“Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face stress from multiple deployments into combat, but report being more prepared for the stresses of deployment,” Schoomaker said.

In Afghanistan, soldiers reported higher combat exposure and lower unit morale compared to previous years. About 14 percent of combat soldiers surveyed met the criteria for behavioral health problems, a rate similar to that found in a 2007 report.

Its actually better to read that whole document before commenting any further, let this be a lesson how political media can dress up the news, lol

albertacowpoke

at 15:21 on November 14th, 2009

The findings in this report are really a no-brainer. Troops in contact with villagers and the Taliban daily constantly deal with IEDs suicide bombers and car bombs. Some of them have seen their buddies either get killed or have their limbs blown off. Now start putting that into the context of multiplying it several times over several tours.

Although they can contact their loved ones via telephone or the internet, that time is restricted. For example Canadian troops can get a five minute phone call once a week from what I understand. The internet is limited to e-mail. Of course that beats the good old days, where it took sometimes 6 weeks for me to get a letter in Bosnia.

Life isn't peachy out there. So the best you can do for those soldiers is to provide clarity in their mission.

Doctors in the FOBs, for the most part, are young and are dealing with the same problems as the young soldiers. They can provide some counselling but their scope is limited. Who counsels the medics and doctors that deal with broken bodies to ready them for casualty evacuation. Those are the unsung heroes in all of this.

Babel-Fish

at 16:46 on November 14th, 2009

Its funny when the reality that soldiers, doctors are human beings the non reality of Hollywood is kick correctly aside. Yes it is not nice seeing blood a gore or your best friends life being snuffed as you are looking on. Perhaps our wonderful politicians should be given a clearer view put them on the battle field each time they order a war, give them a gun.

There are no Rambo's just men that can be very frightened when overwhelmed in a battle the weakest minded can easily crack up.