Mentally Ill Soldiers Forced Into Combat

The picture on the left is Army Spec. Jeffrey Henthorn, 25, a young father and third-generation soldier who committed suicide last year while on his second tour of duty in Iraq. His superiors “knew he was unstable and had threatened suicide at least twice, according to Army investigative reports and interviews,” reports the Hartford Courant. Henthorn is shown here in Iraq with a young girl he befriended. He told family members he was tormented by memories of having shoved a boy off a moving tank and watching the boy’s limp body slip under the wheels. (Hat Tip to TruthDig and the Hartford Courant for the picture and caption. More info at both sites.)

There is something very cynical going on in this government when the Department of Defense, force mentally ill soldiers into combat. The difficulty in recruiting military personnel has forced the DOD to take increasingly reckless and questionable steps to maintain a certain number of troops for the perpetual war in Iraq.

In an article written last year, Jamie Wilson in wrote on June 4, 2005 in The Guardian:

The US military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy in an attempt to halt the rising attrition rate in an army under growing strain as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More>>>


By Stephen Soldz wrote this piece at Information Clearing House. Stephen Soldz is psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Institute for the Study of Violence of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.

03/27/06 "ICH" -- -- As the US military has difficulties recruiting and retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping. The Stop-Loss option in soldiers’ contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired. The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy, and poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits.

Now word comes that “mentally ill” troops are being sent back to Iraq. See: Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill This article refers to “a little-discussed truth fraught with implications,” but the implications discussed all have to do with the effects on the soldiers being returned, and these soldiers’ “effectiveness in combat.” In many instances, being returned to combat, and to a state of constant tension, will exacerbate the soldier’s problems, the article -- correctly -- suggests.

The article indicates that the military is putting pressure on mental health professionals treating these soldiers to minimize the extent of their problems and to declare them fit for return to Iraq and combat. For example, some Army doctors are reporting that they are being told to diagnose combat-stress reaction instead of the more serious post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, the article reports that professionals treating emotionally disturbed soldiers “are under pressure” to approve their redeployment to Iraq. I have written about the moral issues involved in mental health treatment of soldiers in Iraq To Heal or To Patch: Military Mental Health Workers in Iraq. More>>>

Bottom Line: Dr. Soldz makes the point that the policy of sending mentally ill troops into combat, and in some instances RE-DEPLOYING the mentally ill BACK into combat shows the reckless disregard this administration has for both our soldiers and the Iraqi people. He also claims, and I agree that this policy, because of the disregard for human lives, is tantamount to one more act of War Crimes being committed by this administration.