ianstone
10-01-2010, 05:55 AM
Why Soldiers (Don’t) Frag
<LI class=entryAuthor _extended="true">By Nathan Hodge (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/author/nathanhodge/) http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/themes/wired/images/envelope.gif (nohodge@gmail.com)<LI class=entryDate _extended="true">May 12, 2009 | <LI class=entryTime _extended="true">11:12 am | <LI class=entryCategories _extended="true">Categories: Army and Marines (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/category/army-and-marines/)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/05/camp-liberty-departure-brief-1024x679.jpgThe military has now identified the soldier accused of opening fire on his comrades at Camp Liberty, Iraq (http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26538&Itemid=21): Sgt. John Russell, a member of the 54th Engineer Battalion, based in Germany.
The incident forced the spotlight the problems of combat stress. Russell was described as being on his third deployment to Iraq; the shootings took place at Camp Liberty’s “stress clinic,” where troops can seek counseling for psychological issues. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has promised to “redouble” (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4424) the military’s attention to the effects of post-traumatic stress.
Over the next few days, we can expect to see more reports about the strain of repeat deployments and the rise in military suicides (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/us/06suicide.html). But it’s also worth pointing out that these soldier-on-soldier (“fragging”) incidents have been extremely — extremely — rare. Why is this the case? In a statement (http://iava.org/blog/tragic-shooting-incident-camp-liberty-illustrates-stress-deployed-military), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff said: “Unlike during the Vietnam War, today’s military is a professional, all-volunteer force. There have been only five cases of intentional fratricide by U.S. service members in Iraq.”
This is a very important point to tease out. A professional, all-volunteer military is more than just a selective (and self-selecting) group. Service comes with a social compact: Deployed troops should have access to first-rate medical care; they will receive psychological screening; and their families should have access to a support network. While those ideals do not always translate to practice (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html), the American public generally will spare no expense to make sure its volunteer military is properly trained, extremely well equipped and well protected. Deploying as a unit, rather than sending individual replacements, also bolsters morale. All of those factors — the support network, the screening, the good care, the willingness to be there – help cut down on tensions which could eventually lead to fratricide.
But Rieckhoff’s statement also underscores a subtle prejudice within the professional military that, by their very nature, draft armies are packed with disgruntled troops, ready to disobey or kill incompetent commanders. That point, however, is open to debate (http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58906). Yes, America’s last big draftee force — in Vietnam — saw many G.I.-on-G.I. deaths; Texas A&M history professor Terry Anderson cites 450 cases (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-05-11-camp-liberty-shooting-sidebar_N.htm?csp=34) of the killing of an officer with a fragmentation grenade. (I would also refer to this memoir (https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no2/special-agent-vietnam.html) by a Naval Investigative Service officer who had the unhappy duty of investigating these crimes.) But many predominately draftee units fought with great bravery (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/peopleevents/p_soldiers.html), despite what reservations they may have had about their leadership or the war. And the conscription=fragging formula doesn’t necessarily work when we look at other wars: The United States had a massive conscript army in World War II, but few reported cases of violence toward superiors. In World War I, French units mutinied (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Army_Mutinies_(1917)) on the Western Front; British troops did not.
If you want to want to read about a military that has had a serious problem with fragging, take a look at the Russian Federation. Russia’s conscript military and the Red Army before it had a tradition of sadistic hazing — called dedovshchina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedovschina), or “rule of the grandfathers,” because it gives older conscripts the right to brutalize new trainees. Theft, extortion, beatings, even rape are commonplace. Added to this volatile mix is the practice of officers using draftees as a pool of free labor: In the 1990s, it was not uncommon to hear reports of officers renting out soldiers for construction work or putting them to work building their summer homes. Russia is now trying to drag its military into the 21st Century (http://news.scotsman.com/world/Thousands-of-officers-to-go.5214866.jp), but dedovshchina has persisted. If you want to see a really gruesome dedovshchina story, read about the case of Andrei Sychev (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/world/europe/13hazing.html?hp&ex=1155441600&en=e8c49f20c5ccb5b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage).
In the anarchic years under President Boris Yeltsin, it was not unusual to read about some or another Russian conscript grabbing a Kalashnikov and running amok. Most alarming were stories like the 1994 incident, when a soldier assigned to guard a battery of nuclear missiles went berserk (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nuclear-guard-runs-amok-1431518.html), killed his commanding officer and reportedly sprayed the installation with automatic weapons fire. These unhappy incidents persist. A quick perusal of the Russian press shows a few recent cases: In Chechnya, a soldier killed his platoon commander (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12504/) and two of his fellow soldiers before turning the gun on himself; a contract soldier killed two of his colleagues (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12122/4//)after a quarrel; a serviceman in Siberia killed two of his fellow soldiers (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12312/) before taking his life.
So the lesson here, if there is one, is this: Treat your soldiers humanely and look out for their welfare. It won’t eliminate the stress of combat, but it will pay dividends.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/why-soldiers-dont-frag/#ixzz116EMkv83
<LI class=entryAuthor _extended="true">By Nathan Hodge (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/author/nathanhodge/) http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/themes/wired/images/envelope.gif (nohodge@gmail.com)<LI class=entryDate _extended="true">May 12, 2009 | <LI class=entryTime _extended="true">11:12 am | <LI class=entryCategories _extended="true">Categories: Army and Marines (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/category/army-and-marines/)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/05/camp-liberty-departure-brief-1024x679.jpgThe military has now identified the soldier accused of opening fire on his comrades at Camp Liberty, Iraq (http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26538&Itemid=21): Sgt. John Russell, a member of the 54th Engineer Battalion, based in Germany.
The incident forced the spotlight the problems of combat stress. Russell was described as being on his third deployment to Iraq; the shootings took place at Camp Liberty’s “stress clinic,” where troops can seek counseling for psychological issues. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has promised to “redouble” (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4424) the military’s attention to the effects of post-traumatic stress.
Over the next few days, we can expect to see more reports about the strain of repeat deployments and the rise in military suicides (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/us/06suicide.html). But it’s also worth pointing out that these soldier-on-soldier (“fragging”) incidents have been extremely — extremely — rare. Why is this the case? In a statement (http://iava.org/blog/tragic-shooting-incident-camp-liberty-illustrates-stress-deployed-military), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff said: “Unlike during the Vietnam War, today’s military is a professional, all-volunteer force. There have been only five cases of intentional fratricide by U.S. service members in Iraq.”
This is a very important point to tease out. A professional, all-volunteer military is more than just a selective (and self-selecting) group. Service comes with a social compact: Deployed troops should have access to first-rate medical care; they will receive psychological screening; and their families should have access to a support network. While those ideals do not always translate to practice (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html), the American public generally will spare no expense to make sure its volunteer military is properly trained, extremely well equipped and well protected. Deploying as a unit, rather than sending individual replacements, also bolsters morale. All of those factors — the support network, the screening, the good care, the willingness to be there – help cut down on tensions which could eventually lead to fratricide.
But Rieckhoff’s statement also underscores a subtle prejudice within the professional military that, by their very nature, draft armies are packed with disgruntled troops, ready to disobey or kill incompetent commanders. That point, however, is open to debate (http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58906). Yes, America’s last big draftee force — in Vietnam — saw many G.I.-on-G.I. deaths; Texas A&M history professor Terry Anderson cites 450 cases (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-05-11-camp-liberty-shooting-sidebar_N.htm?csp=34) of the killing of an officer with a fragmentation grenade. (I would also refer to this memoir (https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no2/special-agent-vietnam.html) by a Naval Investigative Service officer who had the unhappy duty of investigating these crimes.) But many predominately draftee units fought with great bravery (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/twodays/peopleevents/p_soldiers.html), despite what reservations they may have had about their leadership or the war. And the conscription=fragging formula doesn’t necessarily work when we look at other wars: The United States had a massive conscript army in World War II, but few reported cases of violence toward superiors. In World War I, French units mutinied (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Army_Mutinies_(1917)) on the Western Front; British troops did not.
If you want to want to read about a military that has had a serious problem with fragging, take a look at the Russian Federation. Russia’s conscript military and the Red Army before it had a tradition of sadistic hazing — called dedovshchina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedovschina), or “rule of the grandfathers,” because it gives older conscripts the right to brutalize new trainees. Theft, extortion, beatings, even rape are commonplace. Added to this volatile mix is the practice of officers using draftees as a pool of free labor: In the 1990s, it was not uncommon to hear reports of officers renting out soldiers for construction work or putting them to work building their summer homes. Russia is now trying to drag its military into the 21st Century (http://news.scotsman.com/world/Thousands-of-officers-to-go.5214866.jp), but dedovshchina has persisted. If you want to see a really gruesome dedovshchina story, read about the case of Andrei Sychev (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/world/europe/13hazing.html?hp&ex=1155441600&en=e8c49f20c5ccb5b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage).
In the anarchic years under President Boris Yeltsin, it was not unusual to read about some or another Russian conscript grabbing a Kalashnikov and running amok. Most alarming were stories like the 1994 incident, when a soldier assigned to guard a battery of nuclear missiles went berserk (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nuclear-guard-runs-amok-1431518.html), killed his commanding officer and reportedly sprayed the installation with automatic weapons fire. These unhappy incidents persist. A quick perusal of the Russian press shows a few recent cases: In Chechnya, a soldier killed his platoon commander (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12504/) and two of his fellow soldiers before turning the gun on himself; a contract soldier killed two of his colleagues (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12122/4//)after a quarrel; a serviceman in Siberia killed two of his fellow soldiers (http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///12312/) before taking his life.
So the lesson here, if there is one, is this: Treat your soldiers humanely and look out for their welfare. It won’t eliminate the stress of combat, but it will pay dividends.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/why-soldiers-dont-frag/#ixzz116EMkv83