and then there were five...

BBC reports on five remaining British veterans of WWI. Includes video interviews with Harry Patch, Claude Choules, William Stone, Syd Lucas, and Henry Allingham -- the last one 111 years old!! Tough old bastards, all of em.

BBC One will air a special program this Sunday (Remembrance Sunday, the 11th).

WWI blogger

This takes milblogging to a whole 'nother level. Posts letters of a WWI vet 90 years to the day after they were written. Sweet!

longer tours and solderis' mental health

Firedoglake description of a Pentagon report on soldiers' mental health. (Note that the report's release was delayed from November, so that it wouldn't impact the election of Bush's surge plan.) Links to an Editor & Publisher summary of the findings, which include:

• Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.

• About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.

• About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.

• Forty-four percent of Marines and 41 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the life of a soldier or Marine.

• Thirty-nine percent of Marines and 36 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important information from insurgents.

And so the once-vaunted morality of the American military takes another step down. Thanks Bush and Rummy!! You've turned us into murdering torturers like everyone else.

One of the biggest problems here is that longer tours lead to increased stress, which then warps attitudes.

The study team said shorter deployments or longer intervals between deployments would give soldiers and Marines a better chance “to reset mentally” before returning to combat. The Pentagon last month announced a policy that extends tours of duty for all active duty Army troops from a year to 15 months. Pollock acknowledged that was “going to be a stress” on troops.

Marine tours are seven months, one likely reason that soldier morale was lower than Marine morale, she said.

Pike contrasted Iraq’s campaign to World War I, saying: “The trenches were pretty stressful, but a unit would only be up at the front for a few months and then get rotated to the rear. There’s no rear in Iraq; you’re subject to combat stress for your entire tour.”

So the Iraq War is more stressful to the troops than WWI!?!? Jeezus.