The Observer writes about the exhaustion setting in on military ground forces. Exhaustion and lack of sleep was a common issue for my son and his platoon where they lived on caffeine pills and sometimes went with as little as six hours sleep in three days.
Where once the war in Iraq was defined in conversations with these men by untenable ideas – bringing democracy or defeating al-Qaeda – these days the war in Iraq is defined by different ways of expressing the idea of being weary. It is a theme that is endlessly reiterated as you travel around Iraq. ‘The army is worn out. We are just keeping people in theatre who are exhausted,’ says a soldier working for the US army public affairs office who is supposed to be telling me how well things have been going since the ‘surge’ in Baghdad began.
The article discusses the resultant acute combat stress. Failed marriages and absent parents are a common topic amongst the combat troops. The article also discusses the impact upon the troops by the weak media coverage in the US, a pet topic of mine
‘This is a different kind of war,’ says Caswell. ‘In World War II it was clear who the good guys and the bad guys were. You knew what you would go through on the battlefield.’ Now she says the threat is all around. And soldiering has changed. ‘Now we have so many things to do…’
‘And the soldier in Vietnam,’ interjects Sergeant John Valentine from the same unit, ‘did not get to see the coverage from home that these soldiers do. We see what is going on at home on the political scene. They think the war is going to end. Then we have the frustration and confusion. That is fatiguing. Mentally tiring.’
Read the whole article here
