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Lapses Found in Battlefield Ethics Study Upd=
ated By PAULINE JELINEK WASHIN=
GTON
(AP) - In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of
Marines and a little more than half of Army soldiers said they would repo=
rt a
member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian. More t=
han 40
percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported
personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said Friday in what it
called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to
the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said. "=
It is
disappointing," said analyst John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org thi=
nk
tank. "But anybody who is surprised by it doesn't understand war. ...
This is about combat stress." The mi=
litary
has seen a number of high-profile incidents of alleged abuse in the wars =
in
"I
don't want to, for a minute, second-guess the behavior of any person in t=
he
military _ look at the kind of moral dilemma you are putting people in,&q=
uot;
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 the=
refore
exposing yourself to greater risk." The ov=
erall
study was the fourth in a series done by a special mental health advisory=
team
since 2003 aimed at assessing the well-being of forces serving in =
Offici=
als
said the teams visited The st=
udy
team also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop
mental health problems. But Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the Army's acting surgeon
general, said the team's "most critical" findings were on ethic=
s. "=
They
looked under every rock, and what they found was not always easy to look
at," said Ward Casscells, assistant secr=
etary
of defense for health. Findin=
gs
included: _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 2=
006 adjusted
rate of suicides per 100,000 soldiers was 17.3 soldiers, lower than the 1=
9.9
rate reported in 2005. _Only =
47
percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants shou=
ld
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 kick=
ing
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 an=
d 36
percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important
information from insurgents. Lt. Col. Scott =
Fazekas, a Marine Corps spokesman, said officials w=
ere
looking closely at the ethics results, taken from a questionnaire survey =
of
1,320 soldiers and 447 Marines. "=
The
Marine Corps takes this issue of battlefield ethics very seriously,"=
he
said. "We are examining the study and its recommendations and we'll =
find
ways to improve our approach." Polloc=
k said
officials concluded from the overall study that "there's a robust sy=
stem
in place to provide mental health care, but issues continue with the stre=
ss
of a combat deployment." Based =
on the
findings, officials have revised training programs to focus more on Army
values, suicide prevention, battlefield ethics and behavioral health
awareness, Pollock said. The st=
udy
team said shorter deployments or longer intervals between deployments wou=
ld
give soldiers and Marines a better chance "to reset mentally"
before returning to combat. The Pentagon last month announced a policy th=
at
extends tours of duty for all active duty Army troops from a year to 15
months. Pollock acknowledged that was "going to be a stress" on
troops. Marine=
tours
are seven months, one likely reason that soldier morale was lower than Ma=
rine
morale, she said. Pike
contrasted ___ On the=
Net: The re=
dacted
report is at http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat/mhat.html |
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