WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The chairman of an anti-war activist group claimed Tuesday U.S. Army morale in Iraq was poor.
"For all the talk from the far right about how troops just want Congress to give the surge a chance, there's simply no evidence that it's the truth," Jon Soltz, the chairman of VoteVets.org, an anti-war activist group comprised of U.S. military veterans, said in a statement.
"I know from e-mails I trade with my friends still out in the field that morale is not good, and they aren't putting much hope into the president's plan," Soltz said.
"Last evening, I was at an event and met an Army Public Affairs Officer, and he was pretty honest when I asked what he was hearing from guys in the field. Our troops are overstretched and breaking, and it's affecting morale," he said.
"He didn't hide the fact that we're having a pretty tough time retaining many of our smartest and most able officers," the anti-war activist said. "Very few troops are excited about the prospects of extending the surge until November, or for two years, or 50 years."
Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. and Coalition forces commander in Iraq, is scheduled to report to Congress in September on how the "surge" policy is working. An interim report from the White House earlier this month acknowledged that there was progress in only eight out of 18 designated benchmark areas in Iraq.
