Suicide and the Insanity of War

[Kevin_Kennedy]

There comes a saturation point at which I can no longer listen to institutionalists (e.g., military and other government officials, academicians, members of the media) babble about what may be the most telling symptom of the anti-life nature of the state: the suicides of those entangled in its destructive machinations. Top military officials appeared this week before a congressional committee to discuss the fact that more American soldiers are dying by suicide than in combat, and to inquire into what can be done about this situation. I suspect these officers were quite sincere in their assessments and suggestions but – like institutional authorities generally – said nothing that might raise fundamental questions about the military.

I watched about as much of this hearing as my mind could take, as one officer after another spoke of the needs for "programs" to address this problem; to help "train" servicemen and women to better handle the economic and family pressures, work-loads, and deployment in foreign countries. One military official spoke of the need to "analyze the data" to help protect the soldier who, in his view, was the military’s "most valuable asset." One would fathom from the bulk of this testimony that what the young men and women who are contemplating self-destruction need most are more problem-solving skills; or perhaps another structured training program for soldiers to go through. The project could be expected to generate lucrative government-funded research grants to universities and so-called "think tanks," but no unsettling questions for the established order.

Suicide and the Insanity of War by Butler Shaffer

 

[publicprotector]

And do you think the perps even care, the world is full of mind controlled cannon fodder, there are no glorious dead, its just dead, dead for profit, greed and power.

 

[Liberty]

And do you think the perps even care, the world is full of mind controlled cannon fodder, there are no glorious dead, its just dead, dead for profit, greed and power.

 

[waltky]

Suicide kills more soldiers than combat...

More soldier suicides than combat deaths in 2012
December 20, 2012 - The Department of the Army also showed strains, with soldier suicides outnumbering combat-related deaths for the year.

Through November this year, potentially 303 active-duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers took their own lives. In Afghanistan 212 soldiers were killed as of Dec. 7. The trajectory for soldier suicides keeps getting worse. With a month left in the year, the Army set a grim new record with 177 potential active-duty cases.

Last year, there were 165 confirmed suicides, which was also a record. Among Army Reserve and Guard soldiers potentially 126 took their own lives, up from 118 in all of 2011. The numbers have increased despite a range of training and awareness programs instituted by the service in the last few years.

More measures may be on the way:

A bipartisan group of 36 lawmakers is pushing for new rules allowing military commanders and mental health specialists to ask unstable troops whether they own any personal firearms; lawmakers from both the House and the Senate are working on a final compromise version of the legislation.

Gun rights advocates have opposed the idea, saying it could lead to commanders intimidating some individuals into giving up personal weapons.

Source

 

[Billo_Really]

We've been at war for over 10 years and not one word of outrage from the right. They're perfectly fine with this. And they're also cavalier about the lives of US troops. They don't even think twice about making up lies that put them in harms way.

The right is a perfect example of a "bad American".

Then we have the blue dogs who vote with them. They can go to hell as well! Things won't get better until we purge these pricks out of office.

10 years at war and it doesn't even make the news.

 

[waltky]

More needs to be done for veterans in their 50's...

VA study finds more veterans committing suicide
February 1, 2013 - Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to a two-year study by a VA researcher.

The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There is a perception that we have a veterans’ suicide epidemic on our hands. I don’t think that is true,” said Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist with the VA who did the study. “The rate is going up in the country, and veterans are a part of it.” The number of suicides overall in the United States increased by nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the study says.

As a result, the percentage of veterans who die by suicide has decreased slightly since 1999, even though the total number of veterans who kill themselves has gone up, the study says. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said his agency would continue to strengthen suicide prevention efforts. “The mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation is the highest priority for VA, and even one suicide is one too many,” he said in a statement.

The study follows long-standing criticism that the agency has moved far too slowly even to figure out how many veterans kill themselves. “If the VA wants to get its arms around this problem, why does it have such a small number of people working on it?” asked retired Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former Army psychiatrist. “This is a start, but it is a faint start. It is not enough.” Bossarte said much work remains to be done to understand the data, especially concerning the suicide risk among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. They constitute a minority of an overall veteran population that skews older, but recent studies have suggested that those who served in recent conflicts are 30 percent to 200 percent more likely to commit suicide than their *non-veteran peers.

An earlier VA estimate of 18 veterans’ suicides a day, which was disclosed during a 2008 lawsuit, has long been cited by lawmakers and the department’s critics as evidence of the agency’s failings. A federal appeals court pointed to it as evidence of the VA’s “unchecked incompetence.” The VA countered that the number, based on old and incomplete data, was not reliable. To calculate the veterans’ suicide rate, Bossarte and his sole assistant spent more than two years, starting in October 2010, cajoling state governments to turn over death certificates for the more than 400,000 Americans who have killed themselves since 1999. Forty-two states have provided data or agreed to do so; the study is based on information from 21 that has been assembled into a database.

MORE

 

[waltky]

AVA to focus on vet suicides...

Fight against suicide tops vet group's agenda for 2014
March 24, 2014 WASHINGTON — Broad action is needed from Congress and President Barack Obama to combat the growing problem of veterans suicide, a group representing veterans of recent wars declared Monday on Capitol Hill.

Officials from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, along with dozens of veteran leaders from around the country, are in Washington this week to roll out a laundry list of policy initiatives aimed at reducing what the group called “deplorable” rate of veterans taking their own lives. It’s an effort that IAVA says will top its agenda in 2014.

In a recent IAVA member survey, 47 percent of respondents said they knew an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who had attempted suicide. A study last year by the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that 22 veterans take their own lives each day.

“We want Congress, the President and everybody in America to understand that for this new veterans community, tackling suicide, combatting suicide is our No. 1 priority,” Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA founder and CEO said at a forum Monday. “We unveiled the policy agenda and we’re calling for omnibus legislation and a comprehensive executive order from President Obama to significantly reduce the number of suicides among veterans and servicemembers.”

Rieckhoff said he is hoping for legislators to introduce a sweeping bill later this week. Among the initiatives the group proposed Monday: Extend coverage for PTSD care to 15 years from the current five years to allow veterans more time to seek care in case symptoms don’t emerge soon after they leave the military.

MORE

 

[Delta4Embassy]

There comes a saturation point at which I can no longer listen to institutionalists (e.g., military and other government officials, academicians, members of the media) babble about what may be the most telling symptom of the anti-life nature of the state: the suicides of those entangled in its destructive machinations. Top military officials appeared this week before a congressional committee to discuss the fact that more American soldiers are dying by suicide than in combat, and to inquire into what can be done about this situation. I suspect these officers were quite sincere in their assessments and suggestions but – like institutional authorities generally – said nothing that might raise fundamental questions about the military.

I watched about as much of this hearing as my mind could take, as one officer after another spoke of the needs for "programs" to address this problem; to help "train" servicemen and women to better handle the economic and family pressures, work-loads, and deployment in foreign countries. One military official spoke of the need to "analyze the data" to help protect the soldier who, in his view, was the military’s "most valuable asset." One would fathom from the bulk of this testimony that what the young men and women who are contemplating self-destruction need most are more problem-solving skills; or perhaps another structured training program for soldiers to go through. The project could be expected to generate lucrative government-funded research grants to universities and so-called "think tanks," but no unsettling questions for the established order.

Suicide and the Insanity of War by Butler Shaffer

Worth looking at past wars and suicide rates then. My belief is today's suicides are a direct result on the wars being unjust, and how it doesn't take very long for a soldier in a combat zone to notice all the lies heaped upon their enemy. So much is made about how evil Islam supposedly is, and what a global threat to 'our way of life' it represents. If that were actually true, then there wouldn't be a great galloping shock to our fighters deployed to combat this menace. That many returning combat veterans are commiting suicide begs the question, who's the real enemy here? If you feel justified in going to war and killing the enemy you probably don't then commit suicide (why looking at WWI and II in particular is worthwhile.) But if you feel the war and your actions were unjustified, suicide becomes a likely outcome.

 

[waltky]

Mixed progress on lowering suicides...

Active duty military suicides drop; Reserves go up
April 25, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides among Army National Guard and Reserve members increased last year, even as the number of active-duty troops across the military who took their own lives dropped by more than 15 percent, according to new data.

The overall totals provided by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps give some hope that prevention programs and increased efforts to identify troops at risk may be taking hold after several years of escalating suicide rates. But the increase among Army National Guard and Reserve members raises questions about whether those programs are getting to the citizen soldiers who may not have the same access to support networks and help that their active duty comrades receive. Not only did suicides among Army National Guard and Reserve members increase from 140 in 2012 to 152 last year, but the 2013 total exceeded the number of active-duty soldiers who took their own lives, according to the Army. There were 151 active duty soldier suicides last year, compared with 185 in 2012, Army officials said.

The Pentagon released a report Friday that provided final data for 2012 suicides and some preliminary numbers for 2013. But the department data differs a bit from the totals provided by the services because of complicated accounting changes in how the department counts suicides by reservists. Some of the Pentagon numbers were finalized a year ago, while the services have more recently updated totals that reflect the results of some death investigations. According to the four military services, there were 289 suicides among active duty troops in 2013, down from 343 in 2012. The vast majority were in the Army, the nation's largest military service. The Navy saw a 25 percent decline, from 59 in 2012 to 44 in 2013. The Marines went from 48 to 45, while the Air Force went from 51 to 49.

Due to the accounting changes and other updates, the Pentagon numbers are generally a bit lower and reflect a larger decline in overall active-duty suicides of about 18 percent from 2012 to 2013. In some cases, the services are counting Guard and Reserve members who have been called to active duty as part of the active duty total, while the Pentagon did not. Both sets of numbers, however, show the same trends: fewer active duty suicides across all four services and slightly more deaths among the Army National Guard and Reserve.

The Pentagon also released detailed demographic data on the 2012 suicides, showing that more often they involve young, white men using a non-military issued gun. They also frequently had reported family or relationship stress. Military leaders say it's too soon to declare success in the battle against suicides, but they say that some programs appear to be working. "I think we've changed the cultural mindset — that it's OK for a sailor or a soldier or an airman or Marine to come forward and ask for help," said Rear Adm. Sean Buck, the Navy's officer in charge of suicide prevention and resilience programs. "We're trying to reduce the stigma that used to exist."

More Active duty military suicides drop; Reserves go up | CNS News

 

[whitehall]

First of all since the chicken shit generation made sure the US could no longer maintain a Military force based on the draft, the military had to fill the slots with volunteers and citizen soldiers. When you factor in the lack of support for the Military which is stagnated in a no-win situation by a radical left wing administration you get low combat deaths and a statistical suicide rate.

 

[whitehall]

While left wingers who ain't got a clue about what it means to be in the Military are making profound conclusions about the evils of war and suicide rates in the Military it seems that suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among the same age group in American colleges.