The US Army, Military Ethics, and the Problems with Military Psychiatry

The problem with military psychiatry is that they have to keep a human healthy enough to continue with an inhuman task, the killing of other human beings. And if you are working in the 'civilized world', this killing is done by following a set of rules which are presented as the ethical means for waging war. No surprise then that the US Army has released a report that highlights the extensive problems in "battlefield ethics" in Iraq. From the Baltimore Sun

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 report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said today 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.[...]

Findings 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.
  
• Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should 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 kicking 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 and 36 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important information from insurgents.

Full Report here (PDF file)