Leadership, rotations seen ultimately more important than comforts

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=18190

The typical private arriving in Iraq next spring more than likely will live far better than even some generals do now.

He will sleep in a building with solid walls that is heated in the winter and air conditioned the rest of the year. He’ll eat three or four meals of plentiful, tasty food each day, have ready access to the Internet, and watch any of six American Forces Network channels on television in his spare time — that is, when he’s not playing video games or watching DVDs on his personal player.

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What is not guaranteed, say close observers of the U.S. military in Iraq, is that they’ll be much happier than the current crop of troops, many of whom told Stars and Stripes in a recent questionnaire that they are hot, tired, bored, homesick and disillusioned.

While they welcome better living conditions, hundreds of troops said they are unhappy for deeper reasons that are not as easily fixed. Some have lost confidence in leaders who often can’t tell them clearly what their mission is or who keep postponing the date they can go home to their families. Most of all, they’re worried about an operations tempo that threatens to keep them at war more than at home for years to come.

A captain in the army had to ask that someone personally mail him some fastners (screws, nails, etc.) so that he could have some sort of shelter stay together.

This is disgusting.