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| Dod Survey Finds Ethical Struggle In War | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 4 2007, 05:13 PM (285 Views) | |
| abuturab82 | May 4 2007, 05:13 PM Post #1 |
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1 in 10 servicemembers admit to abusing noncombatants or destroying their property http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?sectio...4&article=45611 By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Saturday, May 5, 2007 ARLINGTON, Va. — Fewer than half of soldiers and Marines polled in Iraq would report a buddy for unethical behavior, according to a combat mental health study released Friday by the Defense Department. The latest Mental Health Advisory Team survey queried 1,320 soldiers and 447 Marines anonymously from August to October 2006, the fourth in a series of studies since 2003 to assess the mental health and well-being of deployed forces. It is the first time the survey has included Marines and the first to ask questions concerning combat ethics, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command and acting Army surgeon general, told Pentagon reporters during a Friday press briefing. Ethics questions were included while the study was under way at the request of Army Gen. George Casey, then-commander of Multi-National Forces — Iraq, according to Rear Adm. Richard Jeffries, Medical Officer of the Marine Corps, who also attended the briefing. Just 47 percent of soldiers and 38 percent of the Marines participating believe that noncombatants should be treated with “dignity and respect,” according to the report. One servicemember in 10 admitted to hitting or kicking a civilian, or destroying noncombatant property without justification. More than one-third also felt that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or Marine in the survey, which is dated Nov. 17, 2006, but was not publicly released until Friday. Asked about her concerns over the reluctance of soldiers to report their buddies for crimes, and apparent willingness to see torture used against enemies, Pollock said, “these men and women are seeing their friends injured. These thoughts are natural.” What is important, Pollock said, is that “they’re not acting on these thoughts.” In the survey, 62 percent of soldiers and 66 percent of Marines reported knowing someone who had been seriously injured or killed, or that a member of their team had become a combat casualty. The researchers passed out anonymous questionnaires and conducted interviews with focus groups among troops involved in combat operations, said Army Col. Carl Castro, Mental Health Advisory Team-IV team leader. The more frequently servicemembers are deployed, and the longer they stay on the battlefield, the more likely they are to report losing not only their moral compass, but their mental well-being, researchers found. The survey found that one-third of troops in combat report feelings of anxiety, depression and stress. “But not all [servicemembers] are at equal risk,” Pollock said. “Length of combat tours is the main determinant” for whether or not a servicemember will suffer from mental health issues. Soldiers who deployed for more than six months, or had deployed multiple times, were more likely to screen positive for a mental health issue than other soldiers. Because Marines typically deploy for just seven months compared to the Army’s yearlong tours, soldiers report experiencing mental health problems at a higher rate, Pollock said. “The Army is spread thin,” and shorter deployments aren’t an option at this point, Pollock said. In fact, the Army recently announced that all combat tours in the Middle East will be extended from one year to 15 months. Pollock said that that decision was made in part to address the report’s recommendation to extend at-home “dwell time,” so soldiers can recover between combat tours. As part of their recommendations, the survey’s researchers said soldiers should remain at home base for 18 to 36 months to recover from the stress of the battle. The Army’s current goal, with the 15- month deployments in place, is for active- duty troops to have a one-year break between deployments. Deployment length was directly linked to morale problems in the Army, according to the report. “Soldier morale was lower than Marine morale,” Pollock said. |
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| abuturab82 | May 4 2007, 07:00 PM Post #2 |
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Iraq, Afghan Wars Cause Concern in US Military About Readiness By Al Pessin Pentagon 04 May 2007 http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-05-04-voa80.cfm The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have generated concern about strain on the U.S. military and how long the United States can continue to keep large forces in combat. Among the concerns is that combat units are so overworked and so focused on fighting insurgencies that they may not be prepared to fight other conflicts that may break out around the world. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon. US soldier with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrols Farah province, 05 Mar 2007 US soldier with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrols Farah province, 05 Mar 2007 The United States has had troops in combat in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. Aside from the thousands of dead and wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, there is growing concern that the strain on the force could have implications for the future of U.S. military readiness. The top U.S. military officer, General Peter Pace, says it is something he watches closely. "I think we must pay attention to that every single day, because it's not a precise point on a curve where we can say when you get to this point, something good or bad is going to happen," he said. General Peter Pace General Peter Pace (file photo) General Pace and other senior officers acknowledge that the deployment schedule is putting a strain on U.S. troops, particularly combat soldiers and marines. Last month, the Defense Department announced it would lengthen the tours of duty for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from 12 months to 15 months, with 12 months of vacation and training between deployments. The marines spend seven months at a time in combat, with six months at home. Former Clinton Administration defense department official Michelle Flournoy says the operational tempo has already left U.S. ground forces in a precarious position. "We're already at the point today where we do not have a reserve of ground forces that is adequate to respond to the full range of contingencies that we might face elsewhere in the world," she said. Flournoy, who is now an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, also worries that during their time at home, troops are only training to return to Iraq or Afghanistan and fight an insurgency, sacrificing training on other basic and potentially essential military skills. "The training is so focused on the tasks that are being conducted in Iraq that a lot of the other war-fighting tasks may be neglected. And I'll give you an example. You can find members of artillery units in both the army and the Marine Corps who've never fired artillery because every tour they've gone on since their enlistments has been in Iraq and they've been focused on counterinsurgency," she said. Current and former military officers have expressed similar worries. Major General John Batiste Retired Major General John Batiste Among them is retired Major General John Batiste, who served in Iraq and has become an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's war policy. "At this operational tempo, we are going to seriously damage our army and Marine Corps. Every army brigade is either deployed, preparing to deploy or redeploying. There is no strategic reserve," he said. On Friday, the Pentagon reported on another set of concerns about the state of the U.S. military. Officials released the results of two surveys, conducted last August and October, of the mental health of troops in Iraq and focusing on the soldiers and marines facing the most combat. Major General Gale Pollock, head of the army's medical command, says the surveys indicate that repeated and long combat tours have a significant impact on the troops' mental health, and the impact is worse on soldiers because they have longer deployments than the marines. "Not all soldiers and marines deployed to Iraq are at equal risk for screening positive for a mental health symptom. The level of combat is the main determinant of a soldier or marine's mental health status," said Pollock. General Pollock reports these first-ever mental health surveys of troops in combat indicate that mental strain contributes to the deployed troops' higher-than-average suicide rate, and also to their willingness to abuse civilians, in violation of military regulations. Ten percent of the troops said they had abused civilians, and half said they would not report such abuse if they saw it. In addition, more than a third said they would condone the torture of a detainee if they thought it would result in information that would save the life of a fellow soldier or marine. A U.S. soldier takes a defensive position as a convoy of military vehicles makes its way through Baghdad, 27 Apr 2007 A U.S. soldier takes a defensive position as a convoy of military vehicles makes its way through Baghdad, 27 Apr 2007 All this adds to concerns about the long-term impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the readiness of the U.S. military for any future conflict. But General Pace, the top U.S. military officer, points out that while active duty ground combat units have been used heavily in recent years, the United States still has a large number of active and reserve troops ready to fight if needed. "The United States armed forces have enormous power and capacity. We have enormous residual capacity," said Pace. "We have the vast power of our Navy and our Air Force still available to take on any potential foes. There is zero doubt about the outcome. It would simply take us longer than we would like to defeat any potential enemy." And analyst Michelle Flournoy acknowledges that even with all the problems she sees, the U.S. military still has the capacity to inflict significant damage on any potential enemy. "To be fair, we still have a highly ready and powerful air, navy, special operations forces, etc. And we still have a very powerful ground force. But I think the fact that our ground forces are being stretched so thin, that they are tied down, bogged down, in current operations, I think there may be some rogue leaders who would perhaps say, 'Well, if I'm going to make mischief, now might be a good time,'" said Michelle Flournoy. The state of the U.S. military has been part of the debate in Washington about when to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Senior generals and admirals acknowledge privately that it would be difficult, although not impossible, to deploy troops to another conflict or to sustain the surge of more than 20,000 extra U.S. troops in Iraq beyond this time next year. That puts even more pressure on the current effort to establish security in Baghdad and negotiate Iraqi political reconciliation so that U.S. forces can begin to withdraw from Iraq without leaving a chaotic situation behind. |
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