There are plenty of metrics in the assorted US wars that just seem to get worse and worse, but none is more glaring than this: in July, the US Army lost 38 people to suicides, the highest number for a single month in history.
Grim figures about increasing suicide rates have been coming for years, and each time the military has sought a new excuse, recently trying to blame the problem on “drug abuse” and insisting the wars have very little to do with it.
Today’s figures came with another new excuse, and one perhaps even more galling than the efforts to make it nothing about the war. Army analyst Bruce Shahbaz suggested the troops are killing themselves because they’re not being sent to war as much anymore.
“With the draw-down of troops from combat, soldiers are spending more time at home and the emotional adjustments have become a struggle,” the argument goes. Interestingly the figures are dramatically higher than pre-2001, when the bulk of the military was spending virtually all of its time at home.
Waking up can be a painful experience…..
It is unfortunate this is happening as a result of an insane, pointless and illegal war causing this kind of trauma and reaction from soldiers who fought in it, but at the same time we have to remember they all voluntarily signed up for it–there is no draft. And considering what kind of brainwashed psychopaths the military is creating, I figure it is a lot more honorable thing and better for us for them to off themselves rather than come back here and become some freaking Robocop making war on the American people or stay in the military and be ordered to attack us when martial law comes.
A telling sign…we train them well to kill but fail to train them to deal with the trauma that results from the killing and associated carnage. Looks like video games and recruiting campaigns don't reveal the reality of war – the blood and guts, the loss of friends close by, the separation from friends and familty, the fear of life changing injuries or death. Who woulda thunk it?
When a modern society's mandate is to kill persons who do not think as we do, you can be sure that when the killers are released into society (where that is not the rule) problems will emerge. If the Christian Church would get off its duff and scream loudly about extrajudicial executions, torture as acceptable procedure (Cheney style) and collateral deaths, the US government and military might rethink their strategies. And if the Christian Church no longer believes in "loving your enemy" and "turning the other cheek", they are no longer followers of the Jesus the Messiah.
Do they leave notes or letters explaining their suicide?
RParker: There is no official draft. But there is capitalism and widespread unemployment. How voluntary can you say a choice for war is if the only other real options are starvation or becoming criminal?
Well, that or revolution, that is.
Seeking help for PTSD is career ending in the military. They are discouraged from seeking help because they would be admitting that they are not mentally strong. In addition, a large number of recruits are teenagers who signed up because they needed a job and/or money for college. The focus is on mental toughness, not recovery. Soldiers are just tools to be used and discarded when they are broken but telling them that from the beginning doesn't up enlistment. The military has broken two young men in my family, both gifted individuals who just wanted to serve their country for a few years before they went to college. The system is broken.