Iraq battle stress worse than WWII

[Templar Knight]

Just browsing through the timesonline.co.uk and I noticed this piece. Apparently a soldier can be investigated for up to a year if he shoots an insurgent. Ah well, such is modern conflicts....

SENIOR army doctors have warned that troops in Iraq are suffering levels of battle stress not experienced since the second world war because of fears that if they shoot an insurgent, they will end up in court.

The two senior Royal Army Medical Corps officers, one of whom is a psychologist, have recently returned from Basra, where they said they counselled young soldiers who feared a military police investigation as much as they did the insurgents.....

One corporal said that troops arriving in Basra were confronted by warnings from the Royal Military Police. “They make it clear that any and every incident will be investigated. It is also made clear that if you shoot someone, you will face an inquiry that could take up to a year.

“The faces of the young lads straight out of training drop as the fear of being investigated strikes home and many ask whose side the RMP are on.”

Although the levels of fighting in Iraq are nowhere near those of some of the bloodiest battles of the second world war, such as the battle of the bulge or Kohima, the much more complex situation that the British troops face is pushing up stress levels just as far.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...859664,00.html

[Duke Malcolm]

I'm surprised that we don't here news of thousands of deserters...
Some things are sheer insanity...

[Meneldil]

Well, I think France beat you here. We just fired 2 generals because a few soldiers killed a murderer in Ivory Coast.

[solypsist]

not only is the stress worse, the reneged promises are worse, too.

"According to a state Guard spokesman, Maj. Phil Osterli, at least 15 Washington National Guardsmen and women signed re-enlistment forms promising them a tax-free $15,000 bonus in return. Many of them were stationed in Iraq at the time, he said. But Pentagon officials have said in published reports that the bonuses were canceled because they duplicated other programs and were prohibited."

of course, re-enlistment lies have been around since the military was invented...

[Soulforged]

SENIOR army doctors have warned that troops in Iraq are suffering levels of battle stress not experienced since the second world war because of fears that if they shoot an insurgent, they will end up in court.

Could it be because it's war? Plain and simple. Could it be because they care for human life? And they don't make differences upon any orders that they receive or any other factor whatsoever.
Personally I think that the "stress" of being investigated, could never be bigger that the one generated by killing people, or fearing that you might be killed at any time. I think that it's just an excuse to get out of that place, of course a valid excuse, and I'll support every damn excuse that every man gives me to abandon war, even if they just broke their fingers.

[Redleg]

Stress in combat is a given. It racks your body while your in such a way that it takes time to get over. The more combat one faces the more time it takes the mind to overcome the stress.

Facing possible prosecution for actions in battle - can indeed increase the amount of stress that one suffers while in a combat environment. But its only an additional stress that is piled upon the others that are involved when in combat.

Trust me on this one - if you have never been in combat you have no idea how much stress is involved - Sometimes I still have problems sleeping from my time in combat, and it was relatively short.