Iraq: The longer US troops do not achieve unchallenged control in Iraq the greater the side-effects they will suffer. Tom Clonan examines thestresses affecting the soldiers and their likely long-term consequences
With US troops on Iraqi soil for nearly four months, the present deployment represents one of their lengthiest combat missions since Vietnam. The 150,000 or so troops do not know when they will be rotated. Nor do they know precisely what their mission is.
As Saddam's weapons of mass destruction remain undiscovered, US troops in a classic example of "mission creep" are becoming increasingly engaged in a guerrilla war - as an army of occupation.
The present operation differs significantly from the US army's most recent experiences. The Gulf War of 1991 saw US troops engaged in just four days of ground combat. In less than 100 hours, the simple objective of Operation Desert Storm had been demonstrably achieved with the complete retreat in disarray of Saddam's forces from Kuwait. The Americans lost 79 troops in combat during this period with a further 54 lost in accidents.
Similarly, the US invasion of Panama in 1989 was a relatively straightforward operation, as was the invasion of Grenada six years earlier.
The war in Iraq shows no sign of abating. After roughly 3½ months of combat, Saddam Hussein and his sons are still at large with no indication of a forceful and credible regime change. With US and British combat casualties totalling almost 150 killed in action, the British and American public are growing uneasy.
Some comparisons with Vietnam and even Afghanistan are being drawn in the US and international media. The current casualty rates bear no comparison, however, with almost 60,000 US troops killed in Vietnam and approximately 22,000 Soviet soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
But for the Americans the situation in Iraq does compare with Vietnam in one alarming aspect. Media reports from Iraq speak of US troops becoming more volatile while on duty at checkpoints and in their interactions with Iraqi civilians. These reports paint a picture of trigger-happy troops opening fire on innocent Iraqi civilians during tense stand-offs.
All of this is taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty as to the future of their mission in Iraq and the increased frequency of guerrilla attacks. Some US officers have made statements to the effect that troops in Iraq are beginning to suffer from low morale, fits of rage, increasing complaints to superiors and even tearfulness when off-duty.
These are the classic symptoms of combat stress reaction (CSR). The US military has had a long association with this phenomenon mainly due to its pioneering work in identifying it. During the American Civil War, troops who displayed the symptoms of this condition - irritability, panic attacks, hyper-vigilance, hyper-arousal, anger, depression and crying - were described as suffering from battle heart.
By the first World War, the condition was described as shell shock. It was during the second World War, however, that a greater understanding of the significance of this condition was realised. Termed combat fatigue during the 1940s, the US estimated that one in four of its combat casualties was mental in origin.
After Vietnam, where US troops had been exposed to an uncertain and unpredictable battlefield, with no clear mission or objective except to search and destroy, rates of battle fatigue or combat stress reaction were high. Indeed, US studies in the 1980s and early 1990s found that 35 per cent of Vietnam veterans still suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder associated with CSR. By then the US authorities recognised that CSR was not an aberrant reaction to combat or a sign of weakness or flawed character.
With this in mind, the US military authorities have sought to identify the key risk factors that might over expose or predispose troops to chronic CSR.
These are the very tactics being employed by resistance groups in Iraq. Among the operational and organisational risk factors for CSR include uncertainty about the mission and role of troops, lack of home support for the mission and, crucially, an unpredictable deployment schedule.
It would seem that the profile of the current US deployment to Iraq fits many of the criteria for exposure to chronic combat stress reaction. Aside from the physical symptoms of this condition, including muscle tremor, tachycardia, hyperventilation and diarrhoea, the behavioural symptoms are ominous.
Like Vietnam and indeed the first Gulf War, the true legacy of the current campaign might not be apparent to the American public for several years yet.
Dr Tom Clonan is a retired Army officer with experience in the Middle East and former Yugoslavia. He is a fellow of the US-based Inter University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. He currently lectures in the School of Media, DIT