The punishment will continue until morale improves

[MSgt213]

There's No Politics in the Foxhole

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 Kerry presidency: "The troops would wonder, how could I follow this guy?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/opinion/18kelly.html