'Pentagon Casts Report Of Increased Combat Stress Among Troops As Positive NewsA disturbing Pentagon report finds that the more often soldiers are deployed, the more likely they are to “suffer mental health problems such as combat trauma, anxiety and depression.”
The Washington Post reports some of the findings about the impact combat stress is having on the troops:
More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a fellow soldier.
In addition, about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. “Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect,” the Army report stated.
Acting Army Surgeon Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock characterized the report as positive news, telling reporters: “What it speaks to is the leadership that the military is providing, because they’re not acting on those thoughts. They’re not torturing the people.”
A livid Lou Dobbs reacted to Pollack’s statement with outrage:
This leadership is putting our men and women, the finest young people we’ve ever put in uniform, into absolutely impossible situations and then taking credit for them not living out their statements on some sort of bureaucratic psychiatric form? I mean, that is despicable.
[…]
[H]ow in the world can the leadership in that building…sit there and compliment themselves and those officers while they were extending their tours to 15 months and putting them in the most impossible of situations?
Watch it: ...'
Zie: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/05/dobbs-on-combat-stress/
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten