Off Track in Iraq

"The greatest part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances."

          - Martha Washington (1731 - 1802)

A Pentagon funded newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, has just conducted a poll of 1,935 of our soldiers in Iraq:

"...half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist...The survey also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of little or no value...forty percent said the jobs they were doing had little or nothing to do with their training." 

The Army was more dissatisfied than the Air Force or Marines.  Reservists, not suprisingly, were unhappiest of all. 

What does all this mean?

I'm not sure, but it doesn't concern me that much because I've never paid a lot of attention to any poll.  My own experience with polls in business and in my personal life has never given me a great amount of confidence in the results.  Think of the last time you were asked to participate in one.  Most of the time, at least for me, it's been a bother.

Is anyone, even if they're not in Iraq, ever satisfied with the way things are going?

Searching for the answer to that question turned up this pre-9/11 poll at the New Democrats Online site.  Take a gander at Table 2 if you put credence in polls. 

When asked, "Do you think that things in this country are generally headed in the right direction or are they off on the wrong track?," 42 percent of the respondents said things are off track. 

That's worse than what our troops in Iraq are saying and they're getting shot at.