JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY Reservists in Iraq feel like second-class soldiers

WASHINGTON -- The dean of military sociologists, Charles Moskos, toured Iraq recently listening to American soldiers, interviewing them and surveying their opinions and gripes. He found morale was good among regular soldiers and was markedly lower among reserve component soldiers.
In a preliminary report written for the acting secretary of the Army Les Brownlee, Moskos, a respected author and professor emeritus at Northwestern University, says he found a "higher level of morale than was anticipated" among regular Army soldiers.
Moskos noted "exceptional levels of performance under very demanding conditions" and said he had no recommendation for major changes in command policies affecting the troops. He did have suggested changes in personnel policies.
In contrast to the high morale of regular soldiers, Moskos says he found lower morale among reserve components -- Army Reserves and Army National Guard. The sociologist said that "the complaint that reservists were second-class citizens in Operation Iraqi Freedom was frequently heard."
Concerns of reservists
Moskos said that among major issues raised by reserve component soldiers were these:
U Reservists often serve longer in Iraq than do active-duty soldiers and are less likely to know the end date of their deployment.
U Stop-loss orders (which prevent soldiers from leaving the military because of retirement or because their enlistment period has ended) affect reservists more than regular soldiers.
U Promotions for reservists are often stalled because their home unit can't promote them while they are on active duty in Iraq, and they can't be promoted in Iraq because they are reservists.
U Civilian U.S. contract guards are paid three times more for the same guard duty as reserve soldiers, and often had better uniforms and boots.
Moskos wrote that the lower morale among reserves was specific to Iraq, and that he had found morale among reservists doing peacekeeping duty in Bosnia and Kosovo generally higher and on a par with regular soldiers.
Clearly, with the Army relying so heavily on Reserve and National Guard soldiers to do its job, someone at the top needs to be listening to Charlie Moskos and taking corrective action. This is not the time to let reserve component morale sink when the percentage of reservists in the force occupying Iraq is rising to new highs -- and when many will have the opportunity to vote with their feet and abandon the Reserves and Guard at re-enlistment time if they continue to feel badly used and poorly treated.
In the high-pressure environment of Iraq -- with elements of combat, guerrilla war, asymmetrical war, liberation, peacekeeping, occupation and constabulary duties -- Moskos said the military chaplains needed to be out circulating widely among troops instead of sitting in headquarters.
"The chaplain, even if a stranger, is regarded as one who gives honest advice without any hidden agenda," Moskos wrote. "From a soldier's viewpoint, seeing a chaplain about a personal problem carries much less stigma than seeing a mental health counselor. As one soldier put it: Seeing a mental health counselor means 'you're a nut job in the file."'
Moskos also observed that the nickname or shorthand for local Iraqis among soldiers is "hajjis" or "hadjis," and that this seemed to have no special negative meaning, in marked contrast to such GI pejoratives as "ragheads" used in the last Gulf War or "gooks" and "slopes" used in Vietnam. In the Arab world hajji is a title of respect, given someone who has made the obligatory Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Moskos added that race-relation problems in Operation Iraqi Freedom appear minimal, though there was an "undercurrent among black troops that Jessica Lynch was the object of overplayed propaganda compared to the similar experience of Shoshana Johnson."
Recommendations
Moskos had a series of recommendations he forwarded to the acting secretary of the Army:
U Consider producing a video/DVD similar to the famous "Why We Fight" movies directed by Frank Capra in World War II. He said themes could include "serving a just cause, the evils of the Hussein regime, stepping into history, the new Greatest Generation. (This) is a shaping experience that they will look back upon with pride for the rest of their lives."
U Have incoming non-commissioned officers and junior officers take a three-week course on Arab culture and learn a few Arab expressions. This could be akin to the three-week German course for new company commanders in the old U.S. Army Europe.
U Military police should be given a combat medal equivalent to the combat medal given to medics in hostile fire zones.
U Establish an Iraq Combined Action Program modeled after the Marine program that put squads of Marine riflemen with a Vietnamese platoon living in a village. Moskos recommended that in Iraq the locally recruited Iraqis be offered "extraordinary inducements" such as high pay, guaranteed pensions and perhaps even American citizenship.
U Consider permitting alcohol use on a limited basis in Iraq. Limited official drinking, now allowed at leave centers in Qatar, "would reduce illicit drinking."
U Explore the use of short-term 15-month active-duty enlistments to perform duties currently done by reserve component forces.
X Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young."