Tag Archives: soldier and civilian morale

Bucking up morale at home

My unwitting use of a more-than-a-year-old Iraq email, posted at The Corner yesterday without a clue to its antiquity and still not explained as of this writing, reminded me that the best sources for news on what’s going on in Iraq and elsewhere still are the active-duty military bloggers, either on the scene or temporarily at home and waiting to go back.

One of the best in the former category is Badgers Forward which, as Badger 6, the blogger himself says, trys to buck up morale at home. He posts this quote from veteran milblogger Michael Yon, who is newly returned to Iraq as a private journalist, which sums up the problem rather well:

"This war is strange. I never hear soldiers worried about their own morale sagging. Contrary, the war-fighters here are more concerned to bolster the morale of the people at home. The morale at war is higher than I have ever seen it at home; makes me wonder what they know that most Americans seem to be missing."

Probably because the soldiers ignore CNN and the networks and don’t read the-sky-is-falling stuff purveyed by the MSM. So read the milblogs, folks. They’re the best source. When their writers get down, it’s time to worry, but only then.