{"id":734,"date":"2003-10-09T12:48:19","date_gmt":"2003-10-09T17:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/734.html"},"modified":"2003-10-09T12:48:19","modified_gmt":"2003-10-09T17:48:19","slug":"troop-morale-in-iraq-an-ongoing-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/troop-morale-in-iraq-an-ongoing-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Troop morale in Iraq an ongoing problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Predmore is on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division near Mosul, Iraq. He’s been fighting in Iraq for more than six months, and if his perspective is any indication, troop morale is suffering badly.<\/p>\n

In a powerful essay<\/a> (brought to my attention by a loyal Carpetbagger reader I fondly call Madre), Predmore now considers Operation Iraqi Freedom “the great modern lie.” His perspective is definitely worth reading.<\/p>\n

Predomore writes, “What is our purpose here? Was this invasion because of weapons of mass destruction? If so, where are they? Did we invade to dispose of a leader and his regime because they were closely associated with Osama bin Laden? If so, where is the proof? Or is it that our incursion is a result of our own economic advantage? Iraq’s oil can be refined at the lowest cost of any in the world. Coincidence?<\/p>\n

“This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination but a crusade to control another nation’s natural resource. At least to me, oil seems to be the reason for our presence here.<\/p>\n

“There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are 10 to 14 attacks on our servicemen and -women daily in Iraq, and there appears to be no end in sight.<\/p>\n

“I once believed that I served for a cause: ‘to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ Now I no longer believe that; I have lost my conviction, as well as my determination. I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Predmore is on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division near Mosul, Iraq. He’s been fighting in Iraq for more than six months, and if his perspective is any indication, troop morale is suffering badly. In a powerful essay (brought to my attention by a loyal Carpetbagger reader I fondly call Madre), Predmore now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}