More US soldiers commit suicide than killed in action

[Sol Invictus]

January 12, 2010
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=268359

Here is a shocking statistic that you won’t hear in most western news media: over the past nine years, more US military personnel have taken their own lives than have died in action in either the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These are official figures from the US Department of Defence, yet somehow they have not been deemed newsworthy to report. Last year alone, more than 330 serving members of the US armed forces committed suicide – more than the 320 killed in Afghanistan and the 150 who fell in Iraq (see wsws.org).

Since 2001, when Washington launched its so-called war on terror, there has been a dramatic year-on-year increase in US military suicides, particularly in the army, which has borne the brunt of fighting abroad.

Last year saw the highest total number since such records began in 1980. Prior to 2001, the suicide rate in the US military was lower than that for the general US population; now, it is nearly double the national average.

A growing number of these victims have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington’s “war on terror” – which is probably why western news media prefer to ignore the issue. How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

What is even more disturbing is that the official figures only count victims of suicide among serving personnel. Not included are the many more veterans – officially classed a civilians – who take their own lives.

Most likely, these deaths are reported in some small-town newspaper in “a brief” news item with no context or background as to what drove these individuals to take their own lives.

It is estimated that the suicide rate among veterans demobbed from fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq is as high as four times the national average. The US Department of Veteran Affairs calculates that over 6,000 former service personnel commit suicide every year.

Many of these men have come home to a country they have fought for only to find no jobs, their homes repossessed by banks that have enjoyed trillion-dollar bailouts and broken relationships.

Meanwhile, President Obama – the erstwhile peace candidate – has taken on the role of Commander in Chief with gusto, telling his countrymen and women that they are fighting a “just war” to “defend American lives”. Only a year ago, he was campaigning for the presidency on a ticket to end such wars.

Now, more than his predecessor, George W Bush, Obama is committing to wars without end. How soul-destroying is that for a grunt holed up in a bunker, with his young family back home probably telling him that they have just signed up for food stamps?

In their guts, these US soldiers must know – as many other ordinary people around the world do – that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire – an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live?

[Grumpy Cat]

The main problem is the lack of health care, particularly mental health, for US soldiers when they return home. But the same thing is happening in militaries all over the world. The Canadian military lacks psychiatrists as well.

[Psychonaut]

The main problem is the lack of health care, particularly mental health, for US soldiers when they return home. But the same thing is happening in militaries all over the world. The Canadian military lacks psychiatrists as well.

Yup. We get training on this all the time. Undiagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) is rampant in those returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. Compound that with the fact that many men will not willingly go see a doctor for something they perceive as a "weakness," which is why things like this go undiagnosed in the military at an alarming rate. It's less of a reflection on the quality of care we receive and more on the psychological profiles of those who choose to be soldiers (i.e. the "strong, silent type"). This imballance of psychological types would not have been present in WWI, WWII or Vietnam, because we're dealing with an all volunteer force now. Since less than 1% of the US population serves, you get a dramatically skewed psychological profile for the average soldier. Finally, in the last decade alone, we've seen such remarkable advances in combat gear and body armor that have done so much to reduce casualties. Mix all of these facts together and you get a suicide rate that's higher than the rate of death in combat.

[Heimmacht]

The main problem is the lack of health care, particularly mental health, for US soldiers when they return home. But the same thing is happening in militaries all over the world. The Canadian military lacks psychiatrists as well.

I agree with this, my boyfriend who was in the Dutch Navy lost one of his men because of suicide, he was the only one trying to keep the rest of them sane by talking about the situation they were all in. But finally he cracked too, even now he still has nightmares about it...