Washington, October 28: Admiral Mike Mullen added that the debilitating wars have left their scars on American soldiers.
“I believe what we can see today is truly just the tip of the iceberg — with consequences for our military and veteran health care system, our national employment rate, and even homelessness,” Mullen said.
A US Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of the wars could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country.
Mullen also added that returning troops will be suffering from invisible wounds and mental duress including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
“There are many soldiers and veterans coming home for whom the battle hasn’t ended,” he said.
“For many, it’s just the beginning. They face physical and mental injuries, anxiety and depression, changing family dynamics and the extraordinary challenges of post-traumatic stress,” AFP quoted the military commander as saying.
He also warned about rising suicide rates and mental health problems among soldiers.
Mullen says the soldiers should be psychologically prepared to face the trauma of combat and ask for help in dealing with the problem.
“We need to teach soldiers psychological fitness skills — just as surely as we teach them to march, wear a uniform, or fire a weapon,” the admiral said.
A report released in August found that more than 1,100 members of the US armed forces killed themselves from 2005 to 2009.
Experts studying the effects of prolonged war on the human psyche say repeated tours without sufficient time between deployments may be part of the problem.
“He or she should have two days for every day they have spent in a combat zone, so if your twelve months in Iraq or Afghanistan you should not go back until at least 24 months,” Lawrence J. Korb , senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told Media.
“On average many of the combat brigades in the army were lucky to have a year in between deployment,” he added.
The report titled “The Challenge and the Promise: Strengthening the Force, Preventing Suicide, and Saving Lives,” involves 49 findings and 76 associated recommendations.
“Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy,” said the report.
The military needed to pay more attention to soldiers’ mental health and take more serious measures to halt substance abuse and criminal behavior among them, the 15-month study concluded.
——–Agencies