Returning troops facing new stresses

As troops come home from Iraq, and possibly Afghanistan, new stresses on military families are only just beginning. The concern stretches to the top Pentagon brass.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said he expects suicide and other post-combat problems to intensify as soldiers return to home and family. And as part of the push to cut federal deficits, the Pentagon almost certainly will face this new front with smaller budgets.
"What I am hoping to avoid," Mullen told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday, "are any massive cuts. And quite frankly, I think those would be dangerous now, given the national security requirements that we have."
Mullen said his priority is personnel over weapons and military hardware. He called American troops "the most combat-hardened force we have had in our history."
"We want to make sure we take care of the people, and their families," he said.
The $530 billion defense budget is about half of the federal government's discretionary spending, and some members of Congress are pushing for $1 trillion in cuts over the coming decade. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has initiated cost-cutting that could add up to $100 billion.
Mullen said the military's cost escalations included a nearly threefold increase in health care expenditures, from $19 billion in 2001 to more than $50 billion this year.
That level of growth, Mullen said, is "unsustainable," adding that the Pentagon should consider raising co-payment levels for the first time since 1995.
Mullen addressed multiple issues, including the possibility of war with Iran, and his concern about China's military buildup. But he made clear that stress on military families is a prime worry. The Army, he said, had five suicides alone on a recent weekend.
Part of the problem, Mullen said, is that American forces have been stretched so thin, and for so long, that many units have not had significant "garrison" life at home since 2003.
"I think we are going to see significant increase in the challenges that we have in terms of troops and our families," Mullen said, "because they are going to have some time home. Things that have been pent up, or packed in, or basically suppressed, or sucked up — whatever term you want to use — we are going to see that" come out.
Mullen called suicide an "emerging issue" and "a very difficult problem."
"There is not a national solution for this issue," the joint chiefs chairman said. "When you start diving into this, the literature isn't very deep or very comprehensive."
On other topics, Mullen said:
He expects to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan after July, but only in numbers recommended by commanders based on conditions on the ground. President Barack Obama deployed an additional 30,000 troops to help root out Taliban insurgents in areas they had long controlled. Mullen tried to downplay rifts over that strategy between the Pentagon and Obama's inner circle reported in a new book, "Obama's Wars," by investigative reporter Bob Woodward.
The military should end its "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay service members, but said he would prefer that the Pentagon complete an internal review before Congress acts. Mullen said the Defense Department has surveyed 400,000 service members and 150,000 military families, and the findings will help the Pentagon implement changes, if ordered.
He expressed fervent hope that diplomatic and economic pressure would force Iran to "figure out it is not in their interest to have a nuclear weapon." Mullen said that in any military action against Iran, "the consequences, known and unknown, are extremely serious."