Sonic links to a rare 'troops on the ground' article that airs the thoughts of American snipers in Iraq. Even in supposedly pacified provinces, the resistance continues apace, and the U.S. has abandoned at least one key road to the insurgency, after fighting it for 2 years.

It's important to analyze this article tactically - figure out what it means for the future of the occupation. However, it's also important to understand the morale of the troops - as Sonic points out, they've lost the sense of why they're there: "I don't feel like there's a cause. I don't personally think there's a reason for this.", one says. Every manager knows that's a bad sign for a workforce. Plus they're beginning to resent the technocrats in the Green Zone. (It might take me less than 2 years to question why I have to go out and get shot while my managers get to stay far away in safety, but then I never was in the army.)

This lack of ideological coherency makes me very happy, because it shows how much the prattle about democracy is for the folks back home. Having said that, I found one sniper's comment about his work killing or maiming 18 people, truly chilling: "It takes nothing," he said with a half-grin. "I don't care about these people."

I suppose if your job is to be a murderer, you can't care that much. But the fact that what these people do makes them 'heroes' is sickening.

I await the mental breakdowns & fragging with impatience.

(And I await someone calling me a hypocrite, after I glorified revolutionary violence 2 posts back. That way I'll have an excuse to pull out Trotsky's 'Their Morals and Ours'. Aw heck, who needs an excuse?)