What is the normal rate of suicides?
A recent report notes that there has been a marked increase in suicides for active duty Army personnel. According to the study, 2007 was the worst year on record with 115 troops taking their own lives. This was up from the previous year of 102 and the year before which was 85.
Is there any level of suicides that is par for the course? Do megacompanies like Walmart, McDonalds, General Electric, IBM or ExxonMobile have off-years as well?
No. Perhaps it is because employees of McDonalds aren’t required to force customers to purchase combo meals. Nor does Walmart require its staff to imprison anyone that fails to submit to its no-shirt, no-shoes, no-service policy. Has anyone recently seen a road-block from IBM forcing drivers to buy workstations before they are allowed to continue traveling? Do employees of GE break down doors of consumers and use waterboarding to discover where the customer purchased his appliances?
The army and its soldiers are paying the seemingly unseen toll of occupation, of torturing, of nation-building: the very job Bush promised never to put them through. A job that no one should ever have or be asked to do.
See also:
Vets’ Lawsuit Opens Door on Suicides, Poor Care
If War is the Health of the State, then Peace is the Health of Civilization
anti-neocon
May 29th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Knowing what those of us who come to this site know about what’s going on ‘over there’, we should not be surprised that such a large percentage of Iraq War vets commit suicide. The winter solders testimony should have been broadcast on prime time so that more Americans would understand. It is the more sensitive who are most affected by horrific memories and guilt for killing and maiming.
Andy Lyons
May 30th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Every suicide should be considered one more casualty of the war. A senseless war at that.
DemsRNeoConsToo
May 30th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I remember in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, on the cable “news” stations, the mindless talking heads’ “rah-rahs” and the “heroes” boards with pictures of young men and women about to invade and destroy another country.
I was ashamed of my fellow Americans, and lost about 70% of my friends, including ones I’d known since childhood, over my absolute opposition to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
I asked my friends and anyone who would listen, “Don’t you remember Vietnam? Don’t you remember what happened to those vets — you are asking these young people to KILL innocent people — don’t you think it will affect them?”
No, they didn’t, or rather forced themselves not to. I had one friend, who I’d known since I was 12, who should have remembered growing up in the shadow of the Vietnam war, say, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”
Of course, it was too much to even get them to consider the plight of the innocents who would be under the bombs that we dropped. The prayers of mothers holding their screaming children.
And then that horrible night when it started. I had anti-war friends (all two of them who sensed the insanity) over and we cried, but those a*s bites at the “news” network were “shocked and awed.”
And now we finally “learn” from former reporters and producers that the networks were pro-war? Who woulda thunk? And all those jerk-offs, I remember Soledad O’Brian, with her seemingly sweet face, in particular, who acted as the U.S. version of Goebbels, do they wake-up screaming like the young men and women, not to mention the Iraqis and Afghans, they sent to their doom?
I doubt it, given that these same pieces of excrement are pounding the war drums against Iran.
At this point, this country is toast, but even now few, if any, of my friends make the correlation between endless war and economic collapse. And they hide from the shame of the plight of the returning vets, because they can’t face the fact that they, themselves, are responsible for dooming these brave and idealistic young people, many of whoms’ reason for joining the military was a combination of patriotism and a desire for better opportunities.
We OWE our vets, not for killing innocent people, but for our collective guilt in sending them to kill innocent people, and for destroying many of their and their loved ones lives.
charlie
May 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
To DemsRNeoConsToo and all others.
I remember Vietnam all too damn well. I got back to the states from that hell of a mess of “imperial war” in September of 1971 after my tour with 5th Marine Regiment. Ever since Shrubbie started his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Vietnam has returned to me every night and many days.
War is something that never stops “giving” to those who are caught up in it on a personal level. Just watch some of those WW2 vets. They get interviewed and they remember things from then, 60+ years ago, as if it just happened.
War is the most pornographic thing we humans have ever devised. Why do the troops kill themselves? Some people cannot continue life after what they have seen and done. And when they find out it was all a big damn lie, well, you think how you would feel. You enlist thinking you are “defending” America. You take an oath to defend the Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. You get sent to the war zone. You do your job the best you can. You see and do things that no human being should ever even think of, let alone actually do. Then, after you get home, hopefully in one piece, you find the truth that it was all just a train car load of bull crap. Makes you doubt yourself for sure. It has been many years since I “came home” only to find that home still does not really exist.
I have great compassion for all the troops in the current illegal wars. They will all need much support and care from all of us. They have been lied to, as we all were. But, they have paid a huge price.
semper fi
Eugene Costa
May 30th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Prescribed amphetamines in US combat forces:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2003/02/57434
anti-neocon
May 30th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Thank you for this profundity, DemsR…
anti-neocon
May 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Please keep on sharing your experiences, charlie.
Skulz Fontaine
May 31st, 2008 at 6:08 am
Suicide could be considered to be perfectly normal. Look at all the other insanity that has graced Amerika since the coronation of Amerika’s boy king George. Rendition, illegal detention, torture, John Yoo, wars of naked aggression, graft, corruption, congressional cowardice, congressional sedition, Karl Rove, ABCBSCNNMSNBC, Nancy Pelosi, war profiteering, warmongering, and mercy, this listing could grow to considerable length in not too many more key strokes. The amazingly sad part of all this, it isn’t Amerika’s service boys and girls that ought to be taking their own lives due of whatever demon-driven madness they live with. Nope, can we all say “ritual sepuku?” How about it kings and corporate princes of Amerika? Up for a little “honorable” way out?
Kirk Hayes
May 31st, 2008 at 8:20 am
Rudyard Kipling, a big supporter of english imperialism, wrote, upon the death of his son in defense of the empire, a poem that includes the following:
If they ask you why we died, tell them because our fathers lied.
This applies equally to those killed as well as those who kill themselves, being unable to expunge the demons in their mind created by the machinations of the megalomaniacal among us with their supporters who sent these brave people to hell for a lie.
Kipling recognized the futility of supporting empire when his son died doing so. When will we wake up, quit accepting lies and leave people to their own devices?
DemsRNeoConsToo
May 31st, 2008 at 9:19 am
My dad, the Fox “News” devotee, is a huge fan of Kiplings, having grown up in the British Empire himself.
A few Christmases ago we got into it about Iraq — I asked him if he would sacrifice his beloved grandchildren to “bring democracy” (that was the excuse du jour at the time for raping Iraq) to Iraq.
These same grandchildren were about to open gifts in the living room, expressions of pure delight on their faces, as there are on many young faces on Christmas morning. Well, except for Iraqi Christians these days…
He blinked and then said, “Yes.” I said, “Great, old man — why don’t you let the kids decide for themselves whether they want to die or be horribly physically or mentally wounded while killing innocent people.”
Then I recited that line from Kipling.
I’m not sure if he’s changed his tune about the war, we stay out of discussing it in order to maintain his heart health and my sanity, but I do think that line from Kipling made him
consider the fate of everyone involved in the horrific insanity that is Iraq / Afghanistan.
Maybe we should tattoo Kipling’s line on the foreheads of every talking head in the media, and every member of congress. Oh — I forgot — THEIR kids won’t be drafted when we attack Iran, just ours.
Larry Battis
May 31st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Does anyone really believe the official 2007 tally of, “115 troops taking their own lives.” That number is low by a thousands. This is just the tip of the iceberg of disgrace that is the military medicine/V.A., for the new millennium. It’s time we stopped wasting mega-mega-bucks on the oil-wars and started funding progressive social programs to rescue this Nation and the World from the quagmire we are presently creating. Let’s try being the good-guys for a change.
Lester Ness
May 31st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
For every person who kills themself quickly, there will be many more killing themselves slowly with booze, etc.
1984
June 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am
Talking point from the ministry of truth.
This is the new number, therefore this is the normal rate. No story here…
alpowolf
June 1st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Another equally ghoulish talking point, that I hear repeated ad nauseum by the whores at Faux News, is that “well the rate is still lower than society at large”. The fact that even the official figures (which, as others here have said, are certainly lowball) are trending up is ignored. They also ignore the living whose souls have been torn apart, for whom death might well be mercy.
Don Daily
June 4th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
“the very job Bush promised never to put them through.”
We let two oil men in the white house convince us we would leave Iraq when the mission was accomplished. We might as well have been trying to pull the fat kids hand out of the cookie jar. I read an article recently that said new exploration has shown Iraq may have more oil than Saudi Arabia. Think maybe Bush Co. got that info a few years earlier? One life lost is too many when we have enough oil in the US to quit M.E. oil forever. The shale formations in the Green River hold more oil than SA. If people in this country would stop fighting every effort to produce more oil domestically we would not need the M.E. My niece’s husband has been to Iraq. He lived in a half blown up bank in a very bad area for months. That sort of thing stays with you until you checkout. Some military personel are choosing to checkout early. Please go to this site and get involved. If we take away the need maybe we can leave Iraq?
http://www.AmericansForJobsAndEnergy.org