(cross-posted to The Agonist)
U.S. Troops Lacking in Ethics, Army Reports
Study: Anxiety, depression, acute stress in combat troops
Not All Troops Would Report Abuse, Study Says
Lapses Found in Battlefield Ethics Study
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The latest Pentagon survey assessing the mental health of troops in Iraq found one-third of soldiers and Marines in high levels of combat report anxiety, depression and acute stress. The survey also dealt with ethical attitudes on the battlefield. A key finding was that more than a third of soldiers and Marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a comrade. Fewer than half of the U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq would report a comrade for unethical behavior, according to the results of the survey by the Defense Department’s Mental Health Advisory Team. The survey of more than 1,300 soldiers and nearly 450 Marines was conducted last year. It was the fourth in a series of surveys on troops’ mental health but the first to include Marines and the first to look at ethics in Iraq. (Read the report)
With Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © and other kneejerk Conservative Chickenhawks beating their collective breast about the need to “support the troops”, it’s interesting to note that these folks seem so blithely willing to ignore the impact that combat stress has on our sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the zealots crowing the “support our troops” mantra have never seen combat. They know nothing of the the terror, the chaos, and the toll it take on the psyches of those forced into that position day after terrifying day. It stands to reason that the more combat time one sees, the greater the potential for significant mental health issues become. If these Chickenhawks truly supported our troops, they’d be doing more than chanting cheap, manufactured propaganda and slapping yellow ribbons on their SUVs. They’d be finding ways to care for those who return physically and psychoologically damaged. They’d be finding ways to spare our sons and daughters the extended trauma that goes with the pointless, immoral war.
If there is one thing that this report clearly demonstrates, it’s that the longer a soldier faces combat, the greater the potential for mental health issues. So what did the Army just do? Yep, they raised the length of tours in Iraq from 12 months to 15. What’s even worse is that most reports that I’ve read in the Mainstream Media focus not on the increasing mental health concerns among our troops, but the apparent lack of ethics. (Sounds like someone’s been channeling their inner Tony Snow again, eh??)
WTF? If you continually place a human being in situations that present a clear and present danger, eventually even the most psychologically healthy and well-adjusted will go into survival mode. Yesterday, I listened to an interview with a Marine sergeant who had come under attack 16 times during a seven-month tour (Marine Corps tours in-country are shorter, corresponding to- your guessed it- fewer mental health issues). He’s plagued by nightmares, rage attacks, survivor’s guilt, and all the other classic symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. If this sort of thing can happen in a seven-month tour- and I have to believe this sergeant’s story is not an isolated case- then what do you think will happen after a 12- or 15-month tour? You’re talking about ever-increasing numbers of soldiers returning home with significant, and in some cases intractable and permanent, psychological issues.
Yeah, who’s “supporting our troops” now??
Frankly, I think it’s absolutely criminal that this Administration and it’s Chickenhawk enablers are able to so blithely use up American soldiers as if they were disposable commodities. Nothing indicates how little these zealots “support our troops” like this reality. NeoConservative Chickenhawks don’t view our troops as flesh-and-blood human beings with hopes and dreams and families; no, they’re mere pawns on this Administration’s geopolitical chess baord, as they work to control the world’s oil supply and force American-style democracy on a region ill-suited for it. (When you’re trying to force American-style democracy on a country, it helps when that country actually knows what democracy IS.)
“It is disappointing,” said analyst John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank. “But anybody who is surprised by it doesn’t understand war. … This is about combat stress.”
The military has seen a number of high-profile incidents of alleged abuse in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the killings of 24 civilians by Marines, the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl and the slaying of her family and the sexual humiliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
“I don’t want to, for a minute, second-guess the behavior of any person in the military - look at the kind of moral dilemma you are putting people in,” Christopher Preble of the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, said of the mission in Iraq. “There’s a real tension between using too much force, which generally means using force to protect yourself, and using too little and therefore exposing yourself to greater risk.”
No reasonable person can, or would, condone the sorts of excesses we’ve seen over the past four-plus years. Nonetheless, when this behavior is viewed in the context of the failed Iraq policy of King George the Worst © , once can begin to understand how this sort of thing might happen. You drop 150,000 troops into a hostile environment. The enemy is all around you, but seldom actually seen. You can be attacked at anytime and in any place without warning- it’s not like they’re wearing uniforms and marching in formation. Try living like that for 12 or 15 months, and see what that does to your peace of mind and your humanity.
The way this war is being run is absolutely criminal. No matter how much Commander Codpiece © crows about how fervently and passionately he “supports our troops”, his actions tell a far different story. The Worst President EVER © may not destroy the US military in the 21 months he has left in office, but he will certainly succeeded in destroying thousands of young men and women who deserve better. These are not disposable commodities; these are real human beings who don’t deserve to be used in such a thoughtless, cavalier fashion and then tossed aside once the used up and broken. They’re our sons and daughters, and they have families who deserve to have them returned to them whole or, in cases when this is not possible, to be given the very BEST care available as long as they require it. After all, given what they’ve sacrificed, can anyone honestly say they deserve anything less?
Just in case you were wondering, these are the results of The Worst President EVER’S © failure in Iraq:
Sixty-two percent of soldiers and 66 percent of Marines said that they knew someone seriously injured or killed, or that a member of their team had become a casualty.
The 2006 adjusted rate of suicides per 100,000 soldiers was 17.3 soldiers, lower than the 19.9 rate reported in 2005.
Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.
About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.
About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.
Forty-four percent of Marines and 41 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the life of a soldier or Marine.
Thirty-nine percent of Marines and 36 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important information from insurgents.
These are our sons and daughters- people whom we’ve taught right from wrong, and whom we’ve taught respect for life and the dignity of all human beings. Unfortunately, we’ve allowed this failure of a President to use our children as mere pawns, mere commodities to be used up and cast aside in the fight to preserve his legacy. They’ve been placed in a situation we did not bring them up to cope with and that we could not have possibly prepared them for.
The problem here is not a lack of ethics among Americans soldiers and/or their inability to tell right from wrong. It’s that they’ve been put in a position in which they feel that they have no choice but to act as they do in order to enhance their own prospects for survival. They’ve been put in a “no-win” situation and told to kill the “enemy”; then we react with surprise and indignation when they actually do so. No, the deaths of innocent civilians at the hands of American solders is never acceptable and should never be condoned. Nonetheless, when you put soldiers in a situation in which the enemy is all around and they don’t where uniforms, eventually even the most morally and pyschologically sound will crack.
NOW CAN WE IMPEACH THE INCOMPETENT, LYING BASTARD?
