American troops in Iraq are near-​​suicidal. Or maybe they couldnt be hap­pier. It all depends on the fla­vor of blog you read, I guess. But what I found in my time in Iraq didnt cling to any neat polit­i­cal sto­ry­line.
Over three weeks in and around Baghdad this July, I spoke to dozens and dozens of sol­diers about their views on the con­flict. For the most part, morale among these infantry­men and engi­neers and bomb-​​disposers was high. Shockingly high, given the fact that they didnt buy the Bush admin­is­tra­tions ratio­nales for the war.
Democracy? Here? Are you fuck­ing kid­ding me? one sergeant laughed, as we drove near the Abu Ghraib prison. This was from a guy from helped safe­guard the January round of elec­tions. He fig­ures the place will col­lapse into civil war as soon as U.S. troops leave.
But hes glad hes in Iraq, regard­less. Mostly, because of the insur­gents.
The gueril­las in Iraq have been bru­tal, killing way more inno­cent bystanders than American occu­piers or Iraqi col­lab­o­ra­tors. While I was in Baghdad, a group of sol­diers in a nearby neigh­bor­hood were hand­ing out candy to bunch of kids. Until a sui­cide bomber stepped in, and killed 27.
It bog­gles my mind, how some­one can go into a crowd of kids, and kill them all. Ill never under­stand it. But thats why Im here, said Staff Sgt. Mark Palmer, with the 717th Ordnance Disposal Company, an Army bomb squad. Yeah, its still fun to blow stuff up. But its not the core thing. Figuring out how this shit [the bomb] works. Stopping it from hurt­ing peo­ple. Thats the main thing.
U.S. troops are highly trained. So theyll do what theyre ordered. But in order to feel good about their mis­sion, they need a cause. They need a bad guy, a vil­lain, so they can play Captain America. The insur­gents have been only too happy to step col­lec­tively into the role of Dr. Doom.
The result is a cycle of attack and reprisal that has noth­ing to do with WMD or draft­ing con­sti­tu­tions but can eas­ily drag on for years. Most of the sol­diers I spoke with didnt expect the deadly feed­back loop to stop any time this decade. Im stay­ing [in the Army] until I retire, which is another ten years, one non-​​commissioned offi­cer told me. So I fig­ure Ill be back here, what, another five or six times?
Most of these GIs were ready to whoop ass, when they first get to Iraq. Theyre part of Americas pro­fes­sional, increasingly-​​permanent mil­i­tary class. Which means theyve been train­ing for years to go to war with pre­cious few full-​​out bat­tles to fight. For a solider, this is like the Super Bowl, Captain Greg Hirschey, the 717ths com­mand­ing offi­cer, said.
But the Super Bowl is only one day long. To keep going for years and years, they need a mis­sion, a rea­son to stay and fight. Washington isnt pro­vid­ing. The insur­gents are.
And make no mis­take, sol­diers are stay­ing. Id say three in four of the GIs I spoke with were plan­ning to reen­list. The new, fat bonuses are one rea­son, of course. But another is the sense that there are real-​​life psy­chopaths out there that need to be stopped. It may sound corny. It may sound dumb. But thats what I saw.
THERES MORE: Now, Id be remiss if I didnt throw in a few caveats here. These sol­diers we all sta­tioned at Camp Victory, the posh­est mil­i­tary base Ive ever seen. Its also one of the safer places would could be in a war­zone. Which means bet­ter morale. Could sol­diers and marines feel dif­fer­ently out in the sticks, where its MREs three times a day and mor­tars all night? You bet. Also, I was in Iraq in July. Since then, 233 American troops have died over there. That could have been a major morale-​​changer, too.
AND MORE: Chris is embed­ded with the 2–2 Batallion of the II Marine Expeditionary Force in the Anbar province. Which means you go read his blog, now.
AND MORE: Joe Katzman’s response is really worth a read.