Today's release of the Army's latest mental health survey provides very little to be happy about. In the past, I've talked repeatedly about mental injuries in war, so I won't rehash all of that again. But here are the highlights from today's report:
Despite all the talk about how wonderful things are in Iraq, the overwhelming majority of troops in Iraq continue to say that morale in their units and their own morale is low. Just 11 percent reported that their unit's morale was "high or very high." Only 20 percent said their own morale was "high or very high."
Afghanistan, which is quickly becoming the 'forgotten war' for Bush/McCain, is finding a worsening of the mental health among our troops there. Preliminary reports are that there has been a rise in the amount of troops in Afghanistan reporting depression. In Iraq, troops report the same level of depression as last year.
Combined, the findings are highly troubling. What it tells me, and any person with an elementary school education, is that for all the talk of success in Iraq, the troops aren't feeling that, at all. At the same time, we're crushing our troops in Afghanistan, who have done heroic work there with little help, but now are feeling increasingly overwhelmed.
The report is so bad, that apparently one of the conclusions is to consider sending more mental health workers to the war front. That's right. Rather than deal with the root cause -- repeated and extended tours -- we're going to send shrinks to the field. I'm not opposed to having counselors on the warfront, because that can only help. But we're joking ourselves if we think that will keep our troops from severe mental injuries.
At any rate, the press, which has treated Senator McCain with kid gloves so far, should bring these findings up with him. Let's see what kind of Commander-in-Chief he would be. When the troops are telling him for the second straight year that they don't see 'sunshine and lollipops' progress in Iraq like him, when more and more are showing signs of severe breakdown in Afghanistan, when they are clearly telling him they need a break, is he really OK telling them that we're going to stay the course?