Just over 60 percent of troops who responded to a Stars and Stripes survey in Afghanistan said current conditions in the country had improved compared to when they first arrived there, while 37 percent said conditions were the same.

Only two percent of those who responded said conditions had grown worse during their deployment.

The results are culled from a readership survey inserted into editions of Stars and Stripes delivered to Afghanistan this past December and February, with responses tallied into March. The survey questions — along with the results — were compiled by Stripes staff and media research experts from MORI Research, a Minneapolis-based firm.

The paper survey was filled out by servicemembers and sent back to Stripes via the military mail system.

Eighty percent of those surveyed in Afghanistan answered “somewhat worthwhile” or “very worthwhile” to the question “Fighting this war for America is…” Nineteen percent said “not very” or “not at all.”

Eighty-six percent of troops said their mission was clear, while 14 percent said it was somewhat unclear or not at all clear. Ratings of unit morale were slightly higher than for respondents in Iraq (see accompanying story): 66 percent said unit morale was high, with 34 percent saying low — including 10 percent who rated morale as very low.

However, 79 percent of respondents in Afghanistan rated their personal morale as high. And though only 65 percent of respondents in Afghanistan said they believed they were well-informed about public support for troops in the Middle East, 72 percent considered public support strong.

What they said

See the results of Stars and Stripes’ survey of deployed troops on the topics of:

The mission in the Middle EastLiving conditionsTroop moraleRelated stories: