Marcus Aurelius: 10+ Combat Events = Mental Breakdown – Either Avoid Elective Wars, Or Maintain a Larger Army (for Toxic Leaders, Triple Again)

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military, Peace Intelligence
0Shares
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

Here’s What’s Troubling American Troops in One Chart

It's about ‘combat experiences,' not length of deployment

This Army graph makes crystal clear what many U.S. troops, and their loved ones, have long suspected: the more combat events they experience, the more mental-health problems they will suffer. In fact, according to this illustration from a new Army report, there is a direct linear relationship between combat exposure and resulting mental maladies.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

While that notion is hardly surprising, this chart confirms what troops have long believed.

“As would be expected, there is a dose-dependent relationship between levels of combat experiences and well-being indices,” the Army’s just-released ninth Mental Health Advisory Team report says. “This relationship is clearly demonstrated for the percentage of Soldiers meeting screening criteria for any psychological problem.”

After years of debating to what degree repeated deployments and other factors play a role in post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries—and the anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies they can trigger—this chart indicates that it is the number of combat events, more than the time deployed, that drives up mental-health problems (of course, the two tend to travel together, but not always).

The U.S. military has been plagued by epidemics of mental-health problems since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. The graphic shows that while troops can withstand several of what the Army calls “combat experiences,” their mental armor begins breaking down once they experience 10 or more such events.

To produce the chart, the Army tallied:

Threats (IED Exploded Near You)

Fighting (Shooting at Enemy)

Killing (Responsible for Death of Combatant) and

Death (Member of Unit Became Casualty)

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: Corrupt politicians and toxic flags make any war unwinnable — and neither group is penalized for being venal and stupidly irresponsible with force structure, acquisition, deployments, and operatoinal decisions — or for ignoring Whole of Government solutiosn that avoid or win wars.

See Also:

Corruption @ Phi Beta Iota

Mental Health @ Phi Beta Iota

Toxic Leaders @ Phi Beta Iota

Financial Liberty at Risk-728x90




liberty-risk-dark