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THE PRICE OF DELAY; MORALE'S HOLDING OUT - FOR NOW
By JONATHAN FOREMAN in Iraq
March 15, 2003

There is a price to be paid for further delay in the impending war with Iraq, beyond the strengthening of the antiwar movement - a price to be paid in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq.

Morale, though now high among the troops encamped and training here, may well suffer if the decision for war is postponed for more weeks or months.

Intense training is necessary to keep the army's edge and maintain morale that would certainly drop if the troops weren't kept busy. But over time such realistic training takes a toll on both machinery and men.

The raising and lowering of expectations of war - Thursday many front-line troops here were issued their personal ammunition "basic load," only to have those loads resecured yesterday - also has its cost.

So it's no surprise that soldiers in the headquarters company of the 54th Engineer Battalion groaned when they heard the news that March 17 was no longer a deadline.

As Capt. Robert Sayre of the 54th says, "You just start stagnating here. When the 'line of departure' continues to get delayed, it's frustrating. You're trained and you're ready to accomplish this mission. Ultimately you'd rather not do it, but if you're going do it, let's get it done. Soldiers just want to do their job or go home to be with their families."

Then there is the effect of harsh desert conditions on weaponry and machines. (During Thursday's massive corps-wide dress-rehearsal exercise for an invasion, the 54th engineers suffered two vehicle breakdowns: an M113 APC and the colonel's own HMMWV.)

Rifles and machine guns have to be cleaned and carefully lubricated - too much grease combines with the omnipresent dust to make an abrasive paste - again and again.

The dust takes a particularly savage toll on computers - and today's is very much a digital army, dependent on laptops, GPS "pluggers" and computerized aiming systems.

Still, the army has fought and trained in deserts before, and as one top sergeant in the 54th said, "provided [the troops] do their daily maintenance, it'll be OK."

But the effects of an extended stay in the desert on the army's human material are another matter.

Even for those soldiers who have trained at the army's National Training Center in the Mojave, or who regularly train in other adverse environments, the sandstorm-plagued Kuwaiti desert is a tough one.

And as the days go by it's getting worse. The end of last week saw not just higher temperatures and the worst sandstorm so far this year, but the first flies of the coming summer.

Living in austere smaller forward positions in the desert like that occupied by the 54th Engineer Battalion (and most of the Third Infantry Division that it is supporting) has particular hardships. No running water or porta-johns, no fresh food or recent news - and other things the lack of which makes life in the desert harder to bear.

To quote First Sgt. James Duncan of the 54th, "Out here, soldiers are unable to contact their families. Back at Camp Virginia, they could stand on line for the phone, they had the Internet (though it didn't work all the time) and they had the PX - it was a four-hour wait, but soldiers were willing to wait."

Of course, like any one you ask here, the sergeant is hesitant to comment on the politics of war, peace and delay: "Hey, we're just the chess pieces here," he says.

But what he will say is this: "Every soldier here wants to go [and do it]. They figure that the sooner we do this thing, the sooner we transition to post-combat ops and then the sooner we go home." He adds, "You can only keep a soldier's level of motivation up for so long before it starts
degrading."

Low morale causes mistakes and costs lives. It's also not easy to fix.

It's another reason why, in the context of a war that is all but inevitable - whatever the diplomatic processes that precede it - delay seems almost inexcusable.