Thursday, October 16, 2003

It's kinda weird... Some liberals--e.g. the revered Counterspin--are noting reports of unhappiness and low morale among U.S. troops in Iraq, seemingly suggesting that this provides an argument against the war/occupation. But that seems mistaken. Suppose we were engaged in a war or occupation that we all recognized to be just, and suppose that similar reports about troop morale reached us. Presumably we wouldn't take that morale problem to constitute a significant reason against prosecuting the war. Similarly, low morale per se doesn't constitute a reason against prosecuting this war.

The problem here, as is so often the case, is that we're too uncritical of arguments when we agree with their conclusions.

None of this is to say that we shouldn't be concerned about the problem, of course.

But I wonder what morale is usually like under conditions of this sort? Are these numbers unusually low?

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