The signs of frustration and of flagging morale are unmistakable,
including blunt comments, online rants and the findings of surveys on
military morale and suicides.

Sometimes the signs are to be found even in latrines.

In the stalls at Baghdad's Camp Liberty, someone had posted Army help
cards listing "nine signs of suicide."

On one card, seven of the boxes had been checked.

"This occupation, this money pit, this smorgasbord of superfluous
aggression is getting more hopeless and dismal by the second," a
soldier in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, wrote in an Aug. 7 post
on his blog,www.armyofdude.blogspot.com.

"The only person I know who believed Iraq was improving was killed by
a sniper in May," the blogger, identified only as Alex from Frisco,
Texas, said in a separate e-mail.

The Army's suicide rate is at its highest in 23 years: 17.3 per
100,000 troops, compared with 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, the first year
of the war.

Of the 99 suicides last year, 27 occurred in Iraq.

The latest in a series of mental health surveys of troops in Iraq,
released in May, says 45% of the 1,320 soldiers interviewed ranked
morale in their unit as low or very low.

Seven percent ranked it high or very high.

Mental health trends have worsened in the last two years, said Cindy
Williams, an expert in military personnel at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.

"These long and repeated deployments are causing acute mental stress,"
she said.

Most troops in Iraq expected 12-month deployments.

Those were extended in May by three months for the troop buildup.

Thousands already were on their second or third deployments.

The result is a fighting force that includes many soldiers who are
worn down, just as Petraeus, who took command of the war six months
ago, is asking them to adopt intense counterinsurgency tactics.

Those strategies emphasize living "outside the wire," in
military-speak, in outposts that put troops close to Iraqis.

The theory is that people will come to trust the soldiers and share
information needed to quell the violence.

But these posts often lack basic amenities such as running water,
flush toilets, telephones and Internet access, which troops at the
forward operating bases enjoy, along with food courts and athletic
facilities.

Being on the front lines, troops in outposts also face greater danger
than those at bases.

Since the war began, there have been eight months in which U.S. troop
deaths topped 100, including three months since the buildup began in
February.

In Yousifiya, troops occupy the sun-scorched grounds of a former
potato-processing plant.

They use pit latrines and get showers only when there is enough water.
They jog around a shade-less concrete lot that serves as a helipad and
mortar-launching site.

Other troops in this area have far less comfortable surroundings.

.........................................................................=

The disparities in living and working conditions among soldiers
heighten resentments, chipping away at morale.

So does the feeling that the mission is futile, a belief fueled by the
Iraqi political stalemate and the unreliability of Iraqi forces.

"There are two different wars," said Staff Sgt. Donald Richard Harris,
comparing his soldiers' views with those of commanders in distant
bases.

"It's a dead-end process, it seems like."

Asked to rank morale in his unit, Harris gave it a 4 on a 10-point
scale.

"Look at these guys. This is their downtime," he said, as young
soldiers around him silently cleaned dust from their rifles at a
battle position south of the capital.

A fiery wind blasted through the small base, an abandoned home
surrounded by sandbags and razor wire.

"It sounds selfish, but if we just had phones and Internet service,"
said Staff Sgt. Clark Merlin, his voice trailing off.

Their unit was supposed to go home this month but its tour was
extended until November.

That means three more months of using plastic sacks for toilets,
burning their waste and hoping for packages from home.

"I think the extension has been 99% of the reason morale is low," said
Merlin, rating it 4 or 5.

From The Los Angeles Times, 8/25/07:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwor=

GIs' morale dips as Iraq war drags on

With tours extended, multiple deployments and new tactics that put
them in bare posts in greater danger, they feel leaders are out of
touch with reality.

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

YOUSIFIYA, IRAQ --

In the dining hall of a U.S. Army post south of Baghdad, President
Bush was on the wide-screen TV, giving a speech about the war in Iraq.
The soldiers didn't look up from their chicken and mashed potatoes.

As military and political leaders prepare to deliver a progress report
on the conflict to Congress next month, many soldiers are increasingly
disdainful of the happy talk that they say commanders on the ground
and White House officials are using in their discussions about the
war.

And they're becoming vocal about their frustration over longer
deployments and a taxing mission that keeps many living in dangerous
and uncomfortably austere conditions.

Some say two wars are being fought here:

the one the enlisted men see, and the one that senior officers and
politicians want the world to see.

"I don't see any progress. Just us getting killed," said Spc. Yvenson
Tertulien, one of those in the dining hall in Yousifiya, 10 miles
south of Baghdad, as Bush's speech aired last month.

"I don't want to be here anymore."

____________________________________________________

Wanna support our troops? Bring 'em home.

Harry