Waging "war on terrorism" 30 squares at a time

By Jane Sutton

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Ringed by cells where bearded men pace back and forth behind windowed doors, a U.S. sailor in camouflage fatigues stood by a metal table with a roll of toilet paper, portioning out strips of 30 squares each.

Beside him, another sailor polishes one of the face shields that protect guards at the Guantanamo naval base's maximum-security Camp 6 from flying spit and urine-feces "cocktails" hurled by prisoners.

The two guards are among 1,800 U.S. troops at the camp that holds 340 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives at the U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba and their commander is worried about their morale.

Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, who took command of the operation in May, conducted a survey that showed 38 percent had high morale, 32 percent had low morale and 31 percent fell somewhere in between.

"I read that to say about two-thirds of you are not very happy," Buzby told his troops in a report on the survey results.

He blames the constant stress of a dangerous job, long deployments and isolation from family.

"I'm the commander of a force that is in contact with the enemy 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that's a concern," Buzby said in an interview in early September.

Elsewhere, debate rages about the future of the detention camp, which opened in January 2002 to hold captives in what Washington calls its "war on terrorism" and has since become an international symbol of injustice.