FALLUJAH,
Iraq, June 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Coming under
apparently non-stop resistance operations and feeling homesickness
after being away from home for months, U.S. soldiers in Iraq want now
to go home and on their feet and not shrouded in coffins, telling
themselves "enough is enough."
"I
think I had enough. It's time for us to go home," said Private
First Class Joe Cruz, 18, from the Second Brigade of the Army's Third
Infantry Division in Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of
Baghdad, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Cruz,
a native of Guam, has been away from his family for nearly one year
and said “not knowing when he would go home” depressed him.
"When
I get depressed, I just write a letter. I write a lot. Writing a
letter relieves my stress," said the soldier. In letters, he
tells his mother he is doing fine, but he is not telling the truth.
Terrified
and panicked by Iraqi resistance operations, Cruz wakes up "in
the middle of the night just to look around. I am always
half-asleep."
Graffiti
on one of the walls along the main road of Fallujah city reads:
"God bless the resistance fighters of the City of Mosques."
“Iraqis
should stay away from occupation soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles,
to allow our fighting cells to carry out their martyr operations
without leaving civilian casualties,” read the statement, vowing to
keep its operations up and running.
“We
will not feel guilty if any of those accompanying - or collaborating
with - the Americans were killed,” it added.
Sleep
Deprivation
 |
|
More
reports are coming in about the low morale of U.S. soldiers in
Iraq
|
The
biggest problem that faces the soldiers is sleep as the Iraqi
resistance gained up momentum over the past few weeks, as if it
deprives them of sleep.
Sergeant
Robert Meadows, one of six doctors at the brigade's compound, said he
treats one soldier a day on average for illnesses related to combat
fatigue.
"The
biggest problem is sleep. Some people just sleep for hours and hours
but still don't have any energy to get up," said the 39-year-old
doctor from Brooklyn, New York City.
Meadows
has seen soldiers suffering from symptoms of combat stress including
depression, agitation and short temper and said a majority of them are
men in their early 20s.
"The
most common symptom is depression. Not knowing when we're going home
is the worst part," he said. He has prescribed anti-depressants
but said the best treatment is just talking to soldiers.
"I
just talk to them and tell them to get some sleep," Meadows said,
adding that soldiers can rest for three days under the treatment.
Private
First Class Miguel Balderas, 22, said he sleeps inside the compound
most of his off-duty time.
"I'm
tired. I sleep most of the time," said Balderas from Santa Maria,
California.
'Breaking
Point'
Private
First Class James Mierop, 20, from Joliet, Illinois, described the
mood as grim.
"I
think a lot of people here are at the breaking point," he said.
"I
think everybody's had enough. Everybody is just ready to go home. I'm
definitely ready to go home," Mierop said.
Morale,
soldiers said, is low since the end of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion.
"It
went down rapidly shortly after they said 'we got more missions for
you guys to do'," said Specialist Adam Nuelken, 23, from
Columbia, South Carolina.
"Morale
is never gonna be sky-rocket high, like when we rolled into Baghdad. I
think only the victory of that scale could ever boost morale that
high," Nuelken said.
"I
don't think you can ever get near that level unless you won another
war," he said.
And
Cruz agrees morale plummeted after the war.
"We
need morale so that we can do our job. But everyone is down and
depressed. It's hard for us to do our job. We need to be boosted
up."
First
Lieutenant Herb Leggette, 23, from Andrew, South Carolina explained:
"The most difficult part is simply figuring out that not
everybody wants to kill you," he said.
When
asked what he would like to say to Bush, Leggette said he wanted Bush
to know everyone here was "exhausted."
"I
would tell him that we are a little bit weary, a little bit
exhausted," he said.
For
Balderas, the message is simple.
"Get
us out of here and get new troops here," he said.
