US forces unlikely to report civilian abuse in Iraq

Fewer than half of US soldiers and marines serving in Iraq would report a fellow service member for mistreating an Iraqi civilian, and about 10 percent of those surveyed admitted they had abused noncombatants or damaged their property, according to a Pentagon report released on May 4 that examined battlefield ethics. The report said that misconduct occurred more frequently as stress levels increased, and that longer wartime deployments could erode morale and negatively affect mental health. Soldiers who screened positive for mental health problems, for example, were twice as likely to hit or kick a noncombatant as those who screened negative. The Pentagon report was based on a mental health survey of 1,320 soldiers and 447 marines in Iraq. The report found that soldiers–whose tours were about twice as long as marines'–had lower morale, more marital problems and higher rates of mental health disorders. The military decided last month to extend Army tours by 90 days. The report also found that soldiers on repeat tours were more likely to suffer acute stress, and that mental health problems correlated with higher rates of battlefield misconduct. "The team found that soldiers with high levels of anger, who experienced high levels of combat, or who screened positive for a mental health symptom were nearly twice as likely to mistreat noncombatants as those who reported low levels of anger," said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the acting Army surgeon general. The Army in particular has struggled with deployment lengths throughout the Iraq War, ordering extensions and speeding deployments to sustain troop levels. The 90-day extension that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered last month, for active-duty Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan, stretches the typical tour to 15 months. The extension will allow the current buildup to continue without forcing returning units to forgo rest and retraining periods. The Pentagon mental health survey, the fourth since the war started, is the first to include questions about battlefield ethics and the treatment of Iraqi civilians. Current military strategy emphasizes a need to make the Iraqi populace feel safe. Fewer than half of the service members questioned agreed with the statement "All noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect." Forty-four percent of marines and 41 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed if it would save the life of a fellow service member. The report also contained data about suicides. Whereas the average suicide rate for the Army as a whole is 11.6 per year for every 100,000 soldiers–lower than that for male civilians in a comparable age group–the rate is 16.1 per 100,000 for soldiers serving in Iraq. Military officials said the report found that the suicide prevention efforts being carried out in Iraq were not designed for a war zone. The authors of the Army document argued that the strains placed on troops in Iraq are in some ways more severe than those borne by the combat forces of World War II. "A considerable number of soldiers and marines are conducting combat operations everyday of the week, 10-12 hours per day, seven days a week for months on end," wrote Col. Carl Castro and Maj. Dennis McGurk, both psychologists. "At no time in our military history have soldiers or marines been required to serve on the front line in any war for a period of six to seven months." And although US casualties in Iraq are far lower than in the Vietnam War, for example, military experts say that Iraq can be a more stressful environment. In Vietnam, there were rear areas that were considered safe, but in Iraq there are no truly secure areas outside big bases. "The front in Iraq is any place not on a base camp" or a forward operating base, the report noted. There are almost 150,000 US troops in Iraq. Many have been complaining in emails and blogs about the Pentagon's decision to extend deployment as part of an attempt to pacify Baghdad and Anbar province. Experts said the report raised concern about the possibility of more incidents like the November 2005 massacre of civilians at Haditha or the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib as tours lengthened. "What it says to me is we should get out of Iraq before a real disaster happens for us," said Cindy Williams, a security-studies researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is an expert on military personnel policies. "Iraq is already in chaos, but for us to stay there and continue to wreck our Army over this is a big mistake." Human rights activists said the report lends support to their view that the abuse of Iraqi civilians by US military personnel was not isolated to some bad apples at Abu Ghraib and a few other detention facilities but instead is more widespread. "These are distressing results," said Steven R. Shapiro, national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union. "They highlight a failure to adequately train and supervise our soldiers." Michael J. O'Rourke, assistant director of healthcare policy for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the military should move to shorter tours, even if that increased the frequency of tours. "The tip of the spear is very sharp, and the more you use it the duller it gets," he said. "Repetitive, constant vigilance has a psychological impact. Many individuals come back with physical scars, and many come back with psychological scars."