In Iraq, troop morale is iffy?

Not a huge Joe Klein fan, but this is a great article examining the US side of the Iraq situation from 20,000 feet. There's a bunch of good stuff in there, Ambassador Crocker bewailing the hoplessness of the politics, the prediction that Bush will hype the forced "broken army" drawdown as his own to try and put off calls for withdrawal, another expression of the melting away of the fighters in Baquba.

But what really caught my eye was this:

Petraeus and his staff were deeply concerned when rumors of another tour extension, from the current 15 months for soldiers, spread in mid-June. "It would be a last resort," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters — but troop morale is so iffy that Petraeus quietly urged his commanders to "get the word out" to their soldiers that the extension rumors were false.

Theater-wide morale is so "iffy" that's it's risen to Petraeus' level?