I'm just going to attack one thing that seems to encompass a lot of what is being discussed on this thread:
Troop morale -- how it really is vs. how it is reported in the media.
I did a google search for "Troop Morale". What I came up with was MANY hits that contained the same headline. "Troop Morale Hits Rock Bottom". Strange. So I decided to check it out.
The poll that the "Low Morale" story was based off of surveyed 2000 troops (a decent sample, however, no info was given as to where they were deployed, except the Iraq theater). The results of the survey said that the troops rated their morale in the following ways:
34% low OR very low
39% average
27% high or very high
The way I read it is that 66% of the troops that are actually deployed are average to high. I would HARDLY call that "Rock Bottom" as many of these headlines have.
(Just do the google search and you'll see what I mean)
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I then plugged in "High Troop Morale" and came accross a very interesting survey.
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/0...ion_iraqi.html
While the sample may be slightly less reliable (only taken of 389 troops, it may be more representative of our actual troops on the ground because it takes into account the actual location in the theater because they were stationed in either Iraq, Qatar or Kuwait (42% were in central Iraq/Baghdad). This survey made some interesting correlations. One thing that stood out was that their findings were not much different than what we found in WWII which was anything but a quagmire.
The results are also broken down into categories, and I don't feel like averaging the categories out, but let me just say that combining the category that responded the most negatively to the question: "How do you feel about the decision to deploy US forces in Iraq?" -- these were reservists mind you, combining the disagree/strongly disagree categories, you have only 21%.
Another interesting response was to the question "How do you think Iraq is compared to how it was before?" The group that responded the most in the negative (Active duty) had a whopping 13% say that it was worse off -- 62% said better off.
The rest of the survey goes in much the same way -- the troops overwhelmingly seem to believe in what they're doing. A few don't, but when the numbers are similar to what we found in WWII, I have to say that what some of them are feeling is just a natural reaction to being somewhere besides home -- it may have little/nothing to do with what they're actually seeing on a daily basis.
I don't know, who should I trust? The media? Or the troops that are actually on the ground? The folks that make up VERY misleading headlines? Or the people who are over there trying to stabilize the region?
I tend to side with the majority of the troops on this one. What we're doing over there is a good thing.