By E&P Staff
Published: July 26, 2006 12:15 AM ET
NEW YORK We often hear from President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld or various generals about the high order of troop morale in Iraq --but we rarely hear directly from the troops themselves. Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post spent four days recently, on and off patrol, with members of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, in and around Baghad. The battalion of more than 750 arrived in Baghdad in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.
Here are some of the reactions he got, as he chronicled in a story for his paper on Thursday.
--Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos: "Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is." Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
--"It sucks," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio. "Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up, that's the most honest answer I could give you....You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
--"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here, there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding....
"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev. "But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."
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E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)
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