The Xsociate Files

Over the weekend, The Washington Post interviewed an Army unit on the last leg of a fifteen month deployment in Iraq. That it was the same unit from which a soldier whose less than truthful New Republic diaries caused a weeks long jihad by the righties was from was no doubt coincidental. Their similarly dejected outlook of the situation is sure to cause another bout any day now of what I will henceforth refer to as "shitizen journaljism".

But at least that unit, who feel that they have only assisted in what one called "a slow, somewhat government-supported sectarian cleansing" actually patrolled their little area of Surgeland, unlike some.

Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here in upstate New York say that morale among US soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions.

Phil Aliff is an active duty soldier with the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum. He served nearly one year in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006, in the areas of Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, both west of Baghdad...

Aliff said he participated in roughly 300 patrols. "We were hit by so many roadside bombs we became incredibly demoralized, so we decided the only way we wouldn't be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time."

"So we would go find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapons caches in the fields and doing weapons patrols and everything was going fine," he said, adding, "All our enlisted people became very disenchanted with our chain of command."

Looks like more phony soldiers to sacrifice on the pyre of pony pursuance. Only then will we be able to make real progress.

(Filed at State of the Day and All Spin Zone)

Posted by The Xsociate on Monday, October 29, 2007 | Permalink