Army morale is at an all-time low, according to USA Today, and the Army is left scratching its head:
More than half of some 770,000 soldiers are pessimistic about their future in the military and nearly as many are unhappy in their jobs, despite a six-year, $287 million campaign to make troops more optimistic and resilient, findings obtained by USA TODAY show.Twelve months of data through early 2015 show that 403,564 soldiers, or 52%, scored badly in the area of optimism, agreeing with statements such as “I rarely count on good things happening to me.” Forty-eight percent have little satisfaction in or commitment to their jobs.[snip]The Army offered contradictory responses to the findings obtained by USA TODAY. Sharyn Saunders, chief of the Army Resiliency Directorate that produced the data, initially disavowed the results. “I’ve sat and looked at your numbers for quite some time and our team can’t figure out how your numbers came about,” she said in an interview in March.However, when USA TODAY provided her the supporting Army documents this week, her office acknowledged the data but said the formulas used to produce them were obsolete. “We stand by our previous responses,” it said in a statement.
So over the past six years, the time that Obama has been in office, the taxpayer has forked out $287 million in an “optimism” program for the army. This is the same army that ignored dangerous warning signs that Nidal Hasan was a terrorist-in-waiting, the same army that then declared the Fort Hood terror attack “workplace violence,” and the same army that also refused–for six years–to pay benefits to those injured or to the families of those lost?
There have been numerous reports of top army commanders being “culled” from the military for everything from being “too cautious and conventionally minded” to “being too hawkish about Iran.
The army has sadly become famous for its attacks on Christianity and its Christian soldiers. For example, the army labeled Christian Ministries “domestic hate groups,” Bibles were banned from Walter Reed Army Medical Center (a decision that was later rescinded), chaplains have been ordered not to quote the Bible or pray in Jesus’ name.
And then there’s the Bergdahl travesty and the fact that our veterans are dying due to VA corruption, incompetence, and deception and are repeatedly put on hold when they call the VA suicide prevention hotline. Veterans’ deaths were lied about and covered up by the VA, and whistle-blowers are still being unlawfully targeted for retribution.
It’s been a year since the VA scandal, but nothing has changed:
Lives were lost and forever changed to make strides in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and our military sees their commander in chief not only preside over the loss of those hard-won gains but brag about it and announce plans to “shrink” the army to “pre-World War II levels.”
To improve morale not only in the army but in all branches of our military we don’t need an “optimism” program; we need a competent commander in chief who won’t insist on putting ideology, politics, and his “legacy” above the lives and well-being of our nation’s armed forces.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY