Troop Morale

I've mentioned it before, but press accounts that crop up now and again talking about bad troop morale of our forces in Iraq are just hogwash at this point. Reenlistments defy that assessment and too many mistake the natural exercise of a soldier's right to bitch for actual bad morale.

And I say this even though I do worry about maintaining morale after the anti-war sentiment explosion over here following the November elections. This is definitely on my radar screen as an issue to monitor.

Michael Yon reports that morale is good:

But gauging morale is not a simple affair of asking a few soldiers. A person has to live with them across Iraq. Having done so, my opinion is that overall troop morale is good to high.

Really, if morale was a matter of how long you are there, the quality of your food and housing, and whether you are being shot at, morale would be low. Obviously, almost any person would say they'd rather not be in a war. Morale is a matter of believing that the sacrifices you are making and risks you are taking are worth it. And so part of supporting the troops is supporting their mission.

I support the mission. Period.