Cry & cry & cry & cry & cry & cry & cry

[avsp]

Originally Posted by bbc

US Iraq troops 'condone torture'
By Humphrey Hawksley
BBC News, Baghdad

A US survey of battlefield ethics among troops in Iraq has found widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances and problems with morale.

The survey, by an army mental health advisory team, sampled more than 1,700 soldiers and marines between August and October 2006.

It examined their views towards torture and the Iraqi civilian population.

A Pentagon official said the survey had looked under every rock and what was found was not always easy to look at.

The Pentagon survey found that less than half the troops in Iraq thought Iraqi civilians should be treated with dignity and respect.

More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents.

About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it was not necessary to do so.

Troops suffering from anxiety, depression or stress were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour, together with those who had had a colleague wounded or killed in their unit.

Shorten deployments

A key recommendation to emerge was to shorten the tours of duty.

Those deployed longer than six months, or who had been to Iraq several times, were more likely to suffer from mental health problems.

But presently thousands of extra troops are being sent to Iraq as part of an offensive to try to curb the insurgency by October.

Tours are being extended, and units that do go home are being allowed less time to recover before being sent back.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US Iraq troops 'condone torture'

Please please please tell me that that the survey replies were motivated by some kind of OT style 'joke'

Otherwise it just confirms my suspicions that the forces are inappropriately trained.

It took decades to 'adjust' the UK military to patrolling in NI, ... worse we seem to have now lost that manual.

All in all the risk of this kind of thing was a good enough arguement not to invade Iraq in the first place

Plus they seemed under-resourced

I can not express my anger at this, ..., nor my, (literally), dreadfull feelings of inevitability about it all.

Offical Pentagon site, ..., (i couldnt quote from it coz of charcacter encoding prob my end, ..., soz, ..., but includes link to the full report)
edit pentagon press release seems to have moved to
DefenseLink News Release: DoD Mental Health Advisory Team Survey Results Released

DefenseLink News Article: Defense Department Releases Findings of Mental Health Assessment

[thatguyoverthere]

People just don't care about the human cost of war, especially those that support war.

I'm sure the troops are frustrated, and this may explain some of their attitudes. Without a clear go-home date to focus on, even the strongest individual can crack.

It's an awful situation that's not bound to get much better. It's a mess and this is part of the price humanity pays for our love of war.

[avsp]

I've spent the weekend think about this a lot

Some say that the CoW presecence exacerbates the situation, that btheres nothing military to be achieved & thus call for an immediate pull-out.

Others complain that the military are constrained by pussified RoE &.

I've been favouring the view that the CoW presecence in itself is preventing regional escalation

Now I dont know what to think, ..., apart from that at the very least the action was preciptious & the the armed forces were not adequately prepared/trained/equpied for the task & that PNAC jumped their own gun, so to speak

This is entirely their fault. Why you lot are prepared to allow them to walk down the street unmolested mystfies me