Iraq veterans suffer stress and alcoholism

The British have started to figure it out.

Thousands of frontline veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing escalating mental health problems, alcoholism and family breakdown, an extensive examination of the British military has found.

Prolonged periods in conflict are linked to higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress and problems at home, researchers report in the British Medical Journal online.

The Ministry of Defence said it would study the findings to try to better understand mental health problems in the military, but last night there was pressure on the government to address accusations that the military is currently overstretched, forcing personnel into longer tours of duty. Opposition MPs said the burden on the military was another reason to begin phased withdrawal from Iraq.

The Royal Navy has, for well over a decade, maintained "Harmony" guidelines, intended to provide an opportunity for individual sailors to spend time with families. It can get complicated because it depends completely on ship deployments, commitments and available refit locations for ships. These were extended across the whole of the British forces with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq become the focal point of individual rotations on long deployments.

The problem is, "Harmony" guidelines were regularly breached. In 1996 the Royal Navy had been able to report that very few breaches of "Harmony" guidelines had occurred and in some of those cases they had actually been able to leave one watch ashore while the ship sailed on fisheries protection duties.

That's all well and good, but Afghanistan and Iraq suddenly put the army, in particular, into long and recurring rotations. Harmony guidelines took a second place to the need to maintain strength on the ground in theatre.

It's the price of going into a protracted engagement with a peacetime armed forces.

An MoD spokesman said: "We will of course study the research and work with the researchers to improve our understanding of the effect of operations on personnel.

"Before their deployment every member of the armed forces will know the length of their operational tour. But there will always be occasions where unforeseen circumstances will impact on their return. The MoD works hard to minimise the effects and will not keep personnel in operations unnecessarily."

He said that the latest figures showed that of all personnel less than 1% of the Royal Navy, 12% of army and 6% of RAF personnel were exceeding the harmony guidelines.

The concern here is actually the extending of tours. While the study talked about tours extended to 13 months or more, that only constitutes 20 percent of the total British force deployed. The usual length of tour is between six and seven months. And the British are concerned about the effects on troops extending longer than that.

The Americans have extended tours to 15 months and many troops have done multiple rotations.

Wait until that has to be sorted out.

h/t Cat