How the War Impacts Noncombatants
The effects of the Iraq war on noncombatants was addressed further in separate study led by Dr. Christopher H. Warner of the U.S. Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. (Lancet 2011; 378: 915-24).
Dr. Warner and colleagues’ study showed that an Army ethics training program had improved troops’ self-reported behavior toward noncombatants, and increased troops’ stated willingness to report fellow unit members committing misconduct.
Soldiers from an infantry brigade team participated in the program, which used clips from popular movies and other unconventional teaching methods to highlight dilemmas involving noncombatants, and instruct on legal and ethical ways of resolving them.
The training, which lasted between 60 and 90 minutes, occurred during a 15-month deployment in Iraq that lasted until 2008. Randomly selected members of the brigade (n=421) completed anonymous surveys 3 months after the training, and their results were compared with anonymous surveys from randomly chosen members (n=397) completed before the training.
Only 5% of troops who had completed training reported having damaged or destroyed private property, compared with 14% before. A majority – 59% – reported being willing to report a unit member for mistreating a noncombatant, compared with 36% before. Combat frequency and intensity was the strongest predictor of unethical behavior, the investigators found, and posttraumatic stress disorder was not seen as predictive of unethical behavior after controlling for combat experiences.
In an editorial comment accompanying Dr. Warner and colleagues’ article, Dr. Jennifer Leaning of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and Michael Lappi, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, praised the design of both the training program, which can be used in a war zone, and the study (Lancet 2011;378:857-9). The study’s weaknesses, they wrote, "derive in some measure from its strengths, in that frequent entries and exits of soldiers from the deployment zone introduced sampling issues ... and concerns about self-report."
Still, Dr. Leaning and Dr. Lappi wrote, "soldiers deployed in counter-insurgency operations will always need to fall back on their own capacity, buttressed by sound training, for resilient and nuanced legal and moral choice."
Dr. Warner reported no conflicts of interest related to the study, and Dr. Leaning and Dr. Lappi also reported no conflicts of interest.