U.S. commanders in Iraq are rejecting a recommendation by Army mental health experts that troops receive a one-month break for every three months in a combat zone, despite unprecedented levels of continuous fighting and worsening risks of mental stress.
Instead, commanders are trying to give troops two to three days inside heavily fortified bases after about eight days in the field, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno.
"We would never get the job done of securing (of Baghdad) if we went out for three months and came back" for one, Anderson said.
U.S. forces in Iraq spend more time in combat without a break than those who fought in Vietnam or World War II, according to Army psychologists who studied troops in Iraq.
U.S. commanders can't match the World War II policy, Odierno said in a news conference late last month.
"Even in World War II and other times … we would pull forces off the line and bring them back on. Here we don't do that," Odierno said. "They (U.S. troops) are out there consistently every single day. So you have to be mentally and physically tough."
President Bush committed 28,000 more troops to Iraq this year as part of an escalation that started in February.
Army psychologists say continual combat may cause more mental health problems. Their research, conducted in Iraq last year, shows that 30% of troops experiencing high levels of combat demonstrate signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress.
Army Col. Carl Castro, a research psychologist who co-wrote the mental health study, said combat "is extremely, extremely stressful." That stress is aggravated, he says, by multiple tours of duty and deployments that have been extended from 12 months to 15.
Castro and Maj. Dennis McGurk, who co-authored the study, recommend U.S. troops by company or battalion be pulled back into fortified areas to rest for one month after every three months of combat, a recovery period similar to that used in World War II.
Castro says U.S. troops have never spent as much time on the front lines without "a significant break" to recover from the demands of war.
More breaks would relieve stress, says Army Spc. Jeremy Osborn, 27, who finished a 14-month stint in Iraq in February.
"The body and mind need to take a break from always being on guard," he said. "Never knowing when we were going to get attacked again was quite stressful."
Bold emphasis mine
By all means, lets add this to families having to buy armor out of their own pocket for Troops in Iraq, longer and longer deployments and extensions, on-and-on; but "we support our Troops" says Emperor Bush.
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