US military in crisis — suicide, sexual assault and substance abuse

The universe works in strange yet predictable ways. Civilisations and nations rise spectacularly and then fade away into oblivion. Nothing and nobody is an exception to this rule. Most people envy the US for its power, prestige and positive attributes. Today the US has the strongest military in known human history with a budget surpassing the total military budget of all other industrialised nations combined. However, this great military machine has its share of problems, the most overwhelming being the triple ailment of suicide, sexual harassment and abuse, and substance abuse.

Daniel Somers, 30, a US National Guard soldier with an intelligence background, shot himself on a June evening in 2013, six years after his second deployment to Iraq. He left a suicide note stating, “During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity… and then participate in the ensuing cover-up.” He continued, “How can I possibly go around like everyone else while the widows and orphans I created continue to struggle?” He capped it with, “too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war.”

In a May 8, 2019 congressional testimony by RAND’s behavioural scientist Terri Tanielian, Congress was informed that between 18 to 22 veterans die by suicide every day and since the past 2,256 days (over six years or since 2013), 270,720 Americans, including a whopping 45,120 soldiers — serving and retired — had killed themselves. Nearly 70% died a violent death using a firearm. Suicide ranks as the 10^th leading cause of death in America, witnessing a 30% increase in the last 30 years. In one year, more veterans and service members died of suicide than those killed, to date, during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The total number of suicides for the past decade now surpasses the Vietnam War deaths. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression are the leading causes of this affliction. And the US mental-health system is in crisis due to acute shortage of caregivers for suicidal veterans and non-veterans.

War exacts an equally heavy price from the victor and the vanquished. The demons of war-related violence manifest in different ways including spousal and child abuse, higher divorce rates, mental anguish and substance abuse. In May 1944, a USAF Medical Corps study on the mental-health status of returning airmen reported, “the universality of guilt reactions… related to the most varied, irrational and illogical experiences,” leading to the phenomenon generally known as “survivor guilt”.

As if suicide was not enough, there is a deeply entrenched problem of sexual assault and harassment in the US military. In early 2014, RAND conducted a wide-ranging study involving 560,000 active duty and reservist service members, on behalf of the US Department of Defense, on sexual assault and harassment and gender discrimination in the military.

The findings were startling given the scope and gravity of the problem. Approximately 20,300 (out of the 1.3 million active-duty) service members were sexually assaulted — almost entirely within a military setting — in 2013 alone. The ratio included 1% men and 4.9% women or around 10,600 servicemen and 9,600 servicewomen. Male victims were more likely to have faced multiple incidents and by multiple offenders, during a single incident. Men were also less likely to report the assault. Women were at an almost five times higher risk of sexual assault as compared to men. The trauma of a sexual assault was one of the major causes of suicide amongst female service members. The 52% women who reported a sexual assault perceived experiencing professional or social retaliation. The figures corresponded for the army, navy, and Marine Corps; however, the USAF experienced lesser number of cases. An estimated 116,600 active-duty soldiers were sexually “harassed” in the same period.

The situation has hardly improved. In 2018, Pentagon estimated about 20,500 sexual assaults across the military (including 13,000 women and 7,500 men). The sharp rise in women experiencing assaults, especially involving officers, is particularly worrisome. Gen Petraeus’ inappropriate romantic liaison — while Director CIA in 2016 — with his biographer, Captain (retd) Paula Broadwell is a case in point. The incident led to Petraeus’ unceremonious resignation.

The twin problems of suicide and sexual misconduct are further exacerbated by substance abuse. In 2007, there were widespread reports of mistreatment of veterans and shoddy living conditions at the largest US military health facility, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, PTSD and amputated limbs were languishing for months on end in vermin-infested quarters, waiting decisions on their medical board-out proceedings and terminal benefits. Most were put on opiates. Misuse of prescription pain-medications is widespread. In 2009, military physicians wrote around 3.8 million pain-medication prescriptions, more than four times higher than 2001.

Additionally, more than 10% veterans have substance-abuse issues with 3.5% using marijuana and 1.7% other illicit drugs. From 2002 to 2009, cannabis usage shot up by 50%, whereas more than 10.7% veterans admit to using heroin, followed by cocaine at over 6%. The overall opioid overdose — mostly from heroin and synthetic opioids — for veterans was at 21% in 2016.

As per a 2015 report, 5.4% military personnel are heavy alcohol drinkers and binge drinking is as high as 30% among active-duty personnel. Sixty-five per cent under-treatment veterans report alcohol misuse. Tobacco-induced health problems cost an estimated $2.7 billion (or 7.6% of the military expense) to smoking-related treatment, hospitalisation and home-care.

Since 2003, almost 30% of army suicides (and over 45% of suicide attempts) involved alcohol or drug abuse. US military veterans comprise around 11% of homeless adults. In 2011, about one-fifth of the veterans in substance treatment programmes were homeless.

An estimated 37% of Afghanistan and 50% of Iraq War returnees suffer from a mental disorder. When you bomb innocent civilian men, women and children in marriage parties and funerals or on check-posts; run amok in villages indiscriminately killing anyone in sight; and stab captured children in the throat and take trophy photos with the dead body — as did Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher who was recently pardoned and lionised by President Trump against US Navy opposition — there are bound to be consequences. And the consequences are paying back with your own life, almost always, after protracted suffering through substance abuse, overdose or the trauma of sexual assault. Cruelty and unjustifiable violence on the battlefield most certainly comes back to haunt. The conscience kills you long after you kill it.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2019.

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