A mental health advisory committee conducted a study of almost 1,800 combat troops stationed in Iraq and found mental health and morale problems - worse among those with lengthened deployments and repeated deployments to Iraq. Although the study was completed in November, it wasn't released until now (in censored form) and only because some of the contents had been leaked.
Among the findings:
-- About 10 percent of soldiers surveyed reported mistreating non-combatants or damaging their property when it was not necessary;
-- Less than half of the soldiers and marines would report a team member for unethical behavior;
-- More than a third of all soldiers and marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or marine.
Morale among soldiers was worse than Marines who have shorter deployments (6 months). The team recommended shorter deployments and longer periods between deployments. Obviously, the Pentagon isn't listening. Interesting, too, that this report came from a foreign news service. Time for the blogosphere to push it to Congress and into the MSM.
Supporting our troops doesn't = pushing them to the breaking point, destroying character, or instilling guilt and shame by normalizing behavior and thinking that's far less likely to occur in benign environment. The prevalence of PTSD tells the story.
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