Commentary #2 on Scientific American Blog on "The Military-Psychology Complex"

The initiative in Comprehensive Soldier Fitness reflects a much broader and historically more significant body of work to examine the effects of a profession of arms on individuals, their families, and their communities. See, for example, the Supplement to the August 2010 issue of Military Medicine (Volume 175, No 8), a journal of AMSUS (The Society of Federal Health Agencies). The community involved in this work includes more than just clinical psychologists. It includes a range of scholars in medicine, the behavioral and social sciences, and the humanities (including Chaplains). The breadth of this network of communities should be appreciated, and their efforts to bring unprecedented visibility to the individual and social effects of a profession of arms should be celebrated. The work is historically significant in bringing inescapable accountability to the Nation for its investment in and commitment to a military. To be sure, many of the people (although certainly not all) involved in this work believe that there is a valuable existential impact of engagement in military operations. But this is not journalism. There will be plenty of opportunity for an evidence-based dialectic and for re-examination and replication of the findings on which any given opinion is based.