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Mr. President: Stop Playing Games With The Lives Of Our Troops.
This morning, President Bush will make an announcement about the situation in Iraq. For every American who supports the troops, I hope that you will listen carefully when he announces that troops deployments are being reduced from the current back-braking 15 months to 12 months at the end of the summer.
In short this is a hollow political announcement
This announcement will do nothing to help the troops currently deployed for 15 months right now, some of whom will not return to the United States until summer 2009. Almost half of the active-duty Army’s frontline units are currently deployed for 15 months, HALF, and of those units, three are on their fourth tour and almost all have been deployed at least twice. We need to reduce everyone’s current tours to 12 months, right now.
From now to the end of this president’s term in office, the overwhelming majority of frontline troops scheduled to deploy are Army National Guard, and their scheduled tours are already 12 months, so again, the President’s announcement does nothing to help them even though many of these troops are scheduled for their second deployment, leaving jobs and families behind again, for a full year.
15-month tours are just too long. DoD itself has found that 15-month deployments are dispiriting. Every day here at Veterans for America, we hear from Soldiers and their families reeling from the effects of 15-month deployments. And we listen as no less an expert than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen says “the well is deep, but is not infinite.” Our reports show that the consequences of churning our troops will be significant and even greater in the future.
Our troops need their commander in chief to fight for them. They need real help, and they need it now.
Bobby Muller’s Statement On President Bush’s 12 Month Tour Announcement
“There is no longer any doubt that the consistent churning of our military for extended periods of time is having a devastating effect on the health of our Soldiers.
An announcement from President Bush that we will not return to 12-month tours until after the summer will do nothing to relieve the burden of those currently deployed for 15 months - some of whom will not return home until Summer 2009.
Almost half of the active-duty Army’s frontline units are currently deployed for 15 months. Three of these units are on their fourth tour. Almost all have served at least twice.
This is the group of Soldiers that has borne an immense, disproportionate burden from our wars. This is the group of Soldiers that desperately needs a break - now.
It is also distressing that, between now and the end of the President’s term in office, the overwhelming majority of frontline units scheduled to deploy are from the Army National Guard; they will not be affected by this announcement. It is standard for these units, many of which are on their second tour, to deploy for 12 months.
Every day, Veterans For America hears from Soldiers and family members reeling from the effects of 15-month tours. The Department of Defense has also confirmed this dispiriting effect.
In short, this is a hollow announcement, it has no immediate effect. It is nothing more than political posturing at the expense of our troops.
Our soldiers are unraveling, and they need their Commander In Chief to provide immediate relief.
A Statement On General Petraeus’s Appearance This Morning.
One thing that needs to be made absolutely clear when considering General Petraeus’s recommendation to pause troop withdrawals: pausing troop withdrawals will have devastating consequences for our troops, give the great post-combat burden that they are bearing as a result of repeated exposure to high-intensity combat. The only step that can ease this burden is more time of the fight to rest, re-train and recuperate.
Army leaders, including General Petraeus, know the incredible strain our soldiers are under. They know that with each deployment the likelihood of one of our soldiers developing a sever post-combat mental health problem - the kind that can ruin someone for life - rises by 60%. Despite this recognition - we have not given our troops the rest that they need. We are knowingly compounding their wounds of war.
The need to continue withdrawing troops is urgent - our troops are exhausted. In fact, of the frontline Army units that have engaged the Mahdi Army in eastern Baghdad during the recent outbreak of violence, two brigades are serving their fourth tou, three are serving their third tour, and three are serving their second tour.
Two New Reports Prove: Our Deployment Policies Are A Recipe For Disaster.
Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq. If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say “no” for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.
We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.
How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.
Here we see that of the nearly 200,000 National Guard members that have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and almost half are returning with post-combat mental problems.
The problems of our troops are real and immediate, and they are getting worse. The Soldiers who are seeing the most combat are also being sent back to Iraq and Afghanistan the greatest number of times.
As part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, we traveled to Fort Drum in New York State and saw, first-hand, the devastation that is happening right now. Devastation that gets worse with every tour, every deployment.
We are releasing these reports, and we have a simple message: enough is enough. The greatest threat to our military is the continued deployment of our troops under unfair conditions; it’s as simple as that. As Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, “The well is deep, but it is not infinite…People are tired.”
The withdrawals must continue, our troops must come home, and we must be ready to help them.
We have to continue to assess how much help the 1.6 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan need and what assistance they will need in the future. We know the need will be great; it is our duty to be ready to answer the call of those who answered the call for us.
Key Findings of the Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT) V
The Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT) V’s report was released today. Key findings of the report include:
- The percentage of soldiers screening positive for mental-health problems is similar to previous years, and similar in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unit morale was higher in Iraq in 2007 than in 2006.
- Combat exposure is down in Iraq, but up in Afghanistan, so that it is now similar in both theaters.
- Soldiers on their third or fourth deployment have significantly lower morale, more mental-health problems and more stress-related work problems.
- Suicide rates remain elevated in both theaters and are above normal Army rates.
- Soldiers who received Battlemind training before deployment reported fewer mental-health problems.
- There are barriers preventing soldiers from obtaining mental-health care they need. In Iraq, many soldiers were moved last year to small outposts where they could maintain close contact with Iraqi civilians and security forces. This placed them farther from care providers at large bases. In Afghanistan, dispersal of troops over a large area made access difficult. Commanders in Afghanistan have responded to the report’s recommendations by moving providers closer to troops.
- Recommendations by the team included augmenting military behavioral-health providers in theater with civilian personnel, increasing time between deployments, providing marital and family counseling as a TRICARE benefit and more focused suicide-prevention training.
This report provides further proof that America’s level of involvement in its current conflict is unsustainable. It simply is not possible to send the same men and women into a war zone over and over again with little time at home and expect them to be healthy and capable of executing their missions.
Read the full report here.
