[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: There' s No Politics in the Foxhole

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There's No Politics in the Foxhole

October 18, 2004
 By GREG KELLY 



 

Washington — Punishment will continue until morale
improves" - or so goes the absurdist joke told in every
barracks and chow line in the American military. In this
election season, however, an almost equally absurd
caricature of the American warrior is emerging - that of a
hyperpolitical, ultrasensitive creature whose morale rises
and falls with every modulation in the debate back home
over the progress of the war in Iraq. 

Readily fueling this notion are President Bush and Senator
John Kerry, each of whom would have us believe that the
troops stand squarely behind him. In their first debate,
the senator told this story of being at a political rally a
few days earlier: "A couple of young returnees were in the
line, one active duty, one from the Guard. And they both
looked at me and said: 'We need you. You've got to help us
over there.' " 

Minutes later, President Bush warned against the prospect
of a Kerry presidency: "The troops would wonder, how could
I follow this guy?" 

So, when the troops are not fending off insurgent attacks,
are they obsessively tuned in TV news, waiting to be patted
on the back or offended, their performance contingent on
the rhetoric emanating from the small screen? 

Of course not. If all politics is local, so is morale. A
rifle platoon commander in Falluja knows his unit's morale
is not the president's responsibility; it's his. 

I speak from experience. I served in the Marine Corps under
two Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and George H. W.
Bush, and one Democrat, Bill Clinton. I flew missions over
Iraq enforcing the no-flight zone in the late 1990's. And I
saw combat with the Army as a journalist, embedded with the
Third Infantry Division during the invasion of Iraq last
year. 

In all of that time, the morale of the units I served in or
beside was never determined by politicians, pundits or the
press. High or low, the spirits of our men and women in
Iraq stem from more mundane concerns. They ponder the same
problems that Americans have back home, only with their
quiet moments occasionally punctuated by unthinkable worry:
Do I like the people I work with? Who will be killed next?
Why is the e-mail system down again? Would I rather be
mutilated by an improvised bomb or captured? 

That is not to say military men and women don't care about
or follow politics. They skew decidedly Republican,
especially among the officers. Overall, however, partisan
preferences are mostly benign, akin to rooting for one
sports team over another. Professional warriors do not have
much time for political debate when they have a mission to
conduct and troop welfare to worry about. 

But there are plenty of people who don't wear a uniform who
will try to draft those who do into the political realm.
Some members of Congress tried as much last month, when the
House Armed Services Committee brought in a group of
recently returned soldiers and marines to testify about
conditions in Iraq. Members invited them to weigh in on one
of the most politically charged debates of the past year
and a half: the question of the news media ignoring the
"good news stories" inside Iraq. The officers had the good
sense to stay above the fray. 

And there is particular zeal on the talking-head circuit to
score political points through the troops. On "The
McLaughlin Group" earlier this month, the conservative
pundit Patrick J. Buchanan said that Mr. Kerry was
demoralizing the troops by "poor-mouthing" America. This
led the liberal political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell to
respond: "I don't care if they're demoralized! They have to
go to war and be prepared to live with the debate that goes
on in the United States about whether it's right or wrong."
Mr. O'Donnell will not be running the U.S.O. any time soon,
but he was more right than wrong, and professional warriors
understand that. 

Citing troop morale to advance a political campaign is an
unwelcome politicization of an institution that strives to
remain apolitical. It is also ineffective: our service
members don't let the political winds determine their
morale. Their work is too important. 

Greg Kelly, a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, is a
former Marine jet pilot. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/opinion/18kelly.html?ex=1099114110&ei=1&en=cc9ad55606bb726b


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