A task force commissioned by the Pentagon itself concluded that repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are resulting in higher instances of mental health problems among troops, which the military health system is in no way prepared to handle. The panel found that nearly 40 percent of soldiers report psychological concerns. Nearly half of guardsmen report problems, due to repeated deployments—which are expected to continue. The task force labeled the Pentagon’s mental health care system conservative and out-of-date, and proposed a paradigm shift from relying on soldiers to self-report to focusing on prevention and screening. Sometimes it takes a task force to state the obvious. Mother Jones has reported all this (and then some) before.
