Study of Soldiers in Iraq Uncovers Troubling Findings about Ethics and Mental Health

May 4, 2007 — -- The Pentagon's first-ever survey of the battlefield ethics of American soldiers and Marines serving in Iraq has uncovered troubling findings about their attitudes toward Iraqi noncombatants, and the mental health risks raised by the continued redeployment of troops to Iraq.

Only a third of Marines and roughly half of the soldiers surveyed said they believed that Iraqi noncombatants should be treated with dignity. Up to 40 percent of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the life of a colleague.

The ethics findings are included in the fourth Mental Health Assessment of U.S. forces in Iraq, which the Army first began conducting in late 2003 after questions were raised about the mental stress on deployed soldiers in Iraq.

For the first time, this year's survey was conducted jointly with the Marine Corps. More than 1,300 soldiers and 450 Marines were surveyed last fall for the assessment. The questions on battlefield ethics were included at the request of the then-top U.S. general in Iraq, Gen. George Casey.

One in 10 soldiers and Marines surveyed for the study said they had mistreated Iraqi noncombatants. Mistreatment was defined as damaging or destroying property when not necessary, or hitting or kicking a noncombatant when not necessary.Forty percent of Marines and 55 percent of Army soldiers said they would report a member of their unit for unethical behavior that included killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

At a Pentagon briefing, Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, acting Army surgeon general, expressed understanding of the high levels of anger among some troops that may have led to the troubling answers on the ethics front.

"These men and women have been seeing their friends injured, and I think that having that thought is normal. But what it speaks to is the leadership that the military is providing, because they're not acting on those thoughts," he said. "They're not torturing the people. And I think it speaks very well to the level of training that we have in the military today."

One of the study's authors, Army Col. Carl Castro, believes soldiers and Marines answered the ethical question on the survey honestly. But he said they are also astute enough not to act out their feelings because "there's nothing gained for them to do that. … You know, yes, we may think it. We may want to do it. But we don't do that because that jeopardizes ourselves or the selves of our other teammates."

Rear Adm. Richard Jeffries said the answers in the survey pertaining to ethics had raised awareness within the Marine Corps, "and they're looking very closely at this, with several groups and several teams … to see what this means and what we may do differently if there is a problem here."

The report also found that long and repeated deployments are having an impact on the mental health of affected troops. Soldiers who had redeployed multiple times reported higher levels of acute stress than first-time deployers. Deployment lengths were related to higher rates of mental health problems and marital problems.

Pollock said the study recommended that "shorter deployments or longer intervals between deployments would allow soldiers and Marines better opportunities to reset mentally before returning to combat."

That will prove difficult, as the Army has recently extended tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan to 15 months and troops are only given a year in between deployments, not the 18 to 36 months the study recommends. However, Pollock noted that the Army's plan to expand should help alleviate the current strains on the force in the future.

Among the study's other conclusions: Overall, soldiers experienced higher rates of mental health problems than Marines did. The study's authors hypothesized the Marines' seven-month tours may have been a factor when compared with the 12 to 15 month tours Army soldiers undertake in Iraq. Deployment length was directly linked to morale problems, and again the Army had lower morale than did the Marines.

Iraq suicide rates were still higher than the Army average but lower than last year -- 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers last year down from 19.9 per 100,000 in 2005. The Iraq numbers are higher than the Army average of 11.6 per 100,000 soldiers. The study also found that the current suicide prevention training program is not designed for a combat environment.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is present in 15 to 17 percent of respondents. The study's authors say that figure is consistent with the numbers seen since the start of the war in 2003.