Top US commander dismisses morale problems in Iraq

By John Chalmers
Reuters

KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct. 28 — A top U.S. military commander sought on Tuesday to rally troops doing long tours of duty in Iraq and dismissed a survey suggesting major morale problems among the 130,000-strong U.S. force in the country.

''If the bar of morale is set as 'do you want to be here or at home?', what are the troops going to say? I'm much more interested in how focused they are,'' General James Jones told reporters during a visit to Iraq's northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

Jones, NATO's supreme commander, is in charge of 118,000 U.S. troops based in Europe and Africa, of which at least 30,000 are deployed in Iraq.

A total of 114 U.S. soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1. Washington blames the attacks on supporters of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and foreign fighters, including members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a private memo leaked last week U.S. missions in Iraq and Afghanistan were a ''long, hard slog,'' a description that undermined Washington's statements it was steadily defeating guerrilla resistance.

Half of more than 1,900 troops who responded to a recent survey by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which receives funding from the Pentagon, said morale in their unit was low or very low and that they did not plan to re-enlist.

A third said their mission lacked clear definition and characterised the war in Iraq as of little or no value.

Jones strode through Kirkuk's bazaar as two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters buzzed overhead and heavily armed soldiers peered into the crowds for what one had said could be ''hairy moments.''

He bought two Turkish carpets from an old man for the equivalent of $20 and put his arm on the shoulder of a boy who bounded along beside him.

Jones visited a command post of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade, addressing the troops as ''soldiers of the greatest army in the world.''

He said he was proud of the work the brigade had done to return Kirkuk to stability, including the installation of a 2,200-strong Iraqi police force.

Jones said the troops he met were upbeat -- they were halfway through a one-year tour and there was a programme for them to get rest and recreation breaks in Gulf states and back at their base in Italy.

He had a military meal in the garden of the once-plush home of an official of Saddam's Baath party now being used by U.S. forces.

From Kirkuk, heart of a region that has 40 percent of Iraq's oil reserves, Jones flew to Baghdad where suicide bombers struck four times on Monday, killing 35 people.