Just 2 weeks ago in Brunswick County, NC, a 23 year old marine who had just returned home from his THIRD deployment in Iraq killed himself and two strangers (as far as anyone knows at this time), a 30 year old woman and her 5 year old daughter.
If the men who started the wars had to fight in them, there would be no wars.
It's just a horrific waste of human potential.

From Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week:


"In the US, male veterans outnumber female veterans 13:1. Since four times as many males as women commit suicide in the general population, you'd expect the rate among veterans to be close to the rate among males - 17.6/100,000 per year in 2002 - and indeed it is, if the CBS raw numbers are correct.

CBS also makes an issue of the fact that suicide rates among younger veterans exceed that of the general population by an even bigger margin - but again, that's what you'd expect, because in that age group, the male-to-female imbalance in suicide rates is greatest, almost six to one.

Suicide is tragedy. What it does not seem to be, among veterans, is an epidemic."

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a52fefb75-2af5-4c42-8a14-3860fe708e56

What is a shame is that the press have not done their jobs for the last 10 years or so. All of a sudden, they find a story????????????????????

The actual death count should then be at least seven times what's officially given by the Pentagon. Death listed in 2005 was about 800. The casualties, which includes wounded, physically and psychologically should be about ten times 800 which will make the casualties for a year at 800x7x7=39,200. It's no wonder they cannot maintain the surge after March. We will have 196,000 casualties (at least) after five years in Iraq. That's more than a quarter of our military. Also, remember that the definition of a broken military is a military with 10% casualties. Murtha and 70% of the American people are right on.

Sadly, this administration only believes in supporting the troops when they are being shot at. At home, they are not supported. We have learned nothing from Viet Nam and still sweep real problems under the rug while we paste empty slogans on our cars.

(Sorry..these posted in reverse)
Here in our small town in the Midwest we too just this past week lost a young man. Recently married with a new baby, having served two tours in Iraq, he took his life by hanging himself. The human mind cannot always live with the inhumanity it witnesses. I firmly believe this invasion has been allowed to continue because there is a disconnect with reality. The biased political sides and hidden agendas are argued continuously in the press but the real meaning of death and suffering are merely thrown a verbal aside. While people argue right and wrong, left and right, living breathing human beings are ceasing to exist. Where is the actual war footage on our television sets? Where are the pictures of the true cost? Many people say the reason there are no rallies and protests are due to lack of a draft. I believe it has more to do with the fact that the Vietnam War brought a change in media coverage and forced reality on us. For the first time pictures were broadcast over the networks that showed the true cost of military conflict. Not just shots of politicos and "imbedded" press stars babbling on but on the ground scenes of bombs, bullets and soldiers dying in the field. These pictures did not just show the hospital and treatment photo-ops for those in power, they showed what led those young men to be there. Reality of war is ugly, shocking and never justified by any religious or political motivation.
For today"s young soldiers to see dead children, women and men, callous disregard for human life and no logic or compassion to any of it goes against everything we as "civilized" humans are taught.

(continued)My father served on the frontline in supply in many different countries during WW2 and was a decorated veteran with a presidential commendation. Years ago while doing a paper on Hitler and media for a college course I asked him many questions. In a soft voice he very clearly told me that everything in war is propaganda. I mentioned the soldiers that were killed as prisoners of the Germans and he responded that it was true of the Americans also. He said, "When you watch the boys you trained and lived with die in front of you the hatred flares inside a lot of people and the need for revenge consumes them. When a German was captured and the men in charge said take them to the rear from the front lines you always heard the shot when they were out of sight." Learning this lesson of the capability of cruelty he saw in his fellow man scarred my father. He never touched or owned another firearm in his life. He always had the same statement for me. War is legalized murder! Though I know he helped liberate one prison camp, he would never speak of it. The horror was just too much for him. War, torture, and deliberate death are never justified and almost unbearable to live with the memory of. Unfortunately for many young men and women who do live thru this, the state of unbearable is the end.

More active members of the military died during two years of peacetime in the early 1980s than died during a two-year period of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a government report.

The Congressional Research Service, which compiled war casualty statistics from the Revolutionary War to present day conflicts, reported that 4,699 members of the U.S. military died in 1981 and '82 " a period when the U.S. had only limited troop deployments to conflicts in the Mideast. That number of deaths is nearly 900 more than the 3,800 deaths during 2005 and '06, when the U.S. was fully committed to large-scale military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CRS, which is the public policy research arm of Congress, issued its findings in the June report "American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics."

...WHY IS THIS NOT THE FRONT PAGE HEADLINE ON HUFFPO??...


.

I wonder what the suicide rate in vietnam era was? I once helped tie off the wrists of a self professed homo-sexual in my basic training company at fort ord, who slashed himself badly. He never saw combat, wasn't unduly harrassed. I was his room mate. I don't know if he was gay or not. I do know he had decided he was getting out of the army.

I'm just saying, since the military has very low entry standards, basically has suspended psycological profiling, hires immature (young) people, etc., the concentration of at risk individuals could be higher than the general population...even without the trauma of having been in combat. I look forward to the report and hope it is in depth and not just some more alarmist/headline grabbing stuff that doesn't mean much.

------------------
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

SEND THEM TO IRAQ
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What a sick nation we have become - we have been arguring for five years whether to stop this war and get out of the business of Nation-Destruction, and only now are we seeing the effects on the children that Bush-Cheney have sent over to murder a million for false reasons?

Some republicans have begun to recognize the massive waste of capital on this war - at least they notice something.

Others wonder how you can win hearts and minds by destroying infrastructure and firing all the employees in an entire nation and allowing "security" guards to shot randomly into crowds.

Many have seen how the concern for the troops ends at the moment they go off duty, or come home without arms and legs - And don't give me that crap about George B*** going to the medical center the other day - that was his first visit to the soldiers whose lives he ruined - and he still hasn't spoken to the Tillmans or to Cathy Sheehan. What word do YOU use for such a "man"?

But some of us are focused on nothing more than the fact that we have murdered a million people under false pretenses. THAT IS A MASSIVE WAR CRIME. And you have to realize that you have put enormous pressure on your soldiers - without recourse to any support - when they have murdered innocent people without cause.

Two months ago, one soldier was brave enough to ask Mr Moron himself for more leave for the troops. Can the media check as to whether he has been killed in "combat" yet? This is the "support" our troops get from his evil monster that our WAR CRIMES SOCIETY has allowed to rule over us for two terms.

Do you think this "president" cries for them more than he drinks? Do any of you understand why so many people hate this man, and that evil back-stage murderer Cheney?

How many dead bodies have to go into this bastard's "legacy"...?

"Winston Smith"

Lyrics from M*A*S*H

"Suicide is Painless"
Music by Johnny Mandel
Lyrics by Mike Altman

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see...

[REFRAIN]

That suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make
all our little joys relate
without that ever-present hate
but now I know that it's to late, and...

REFRAIN

The game of life is hard to play
I'm going to lose it anyway
the losing card I'll someday lay
so this is all I have to say

REFRAIN

The only way to win is cheat
and lay it down before I'm beat
and to another give my seat
for that's the only painless feat

REFRAIN

The sword of time will pierce our skins
it doesn't hurt when it begins
but as it works its way on in
the pain grows stronger...watch it grin but...

REFRAIN

A brave man once requested me
to answer questions that are key
is it to be or not to be
and I replied 'oh why ask me?'

'Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please

...and you can do the same thing if you please.

Keep in mind that the Repugs opposed an Army plan to screen all vets for suicide, because those medical records might cause the vets difficulty when they want to purchase a gun.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
The GOP loves their 2nd amendment talking points more than war vets.
A-holes.

All you veterans need to stop crying. No one give a rats ass about you. America is about class not race. And when you wake up and open your eyes you will be able to see it. Thats why you will never get this country to re institute the draft. That Draft gets in the way of everything. But here is a hint, No Draft, NO estate taxes, No bankruptcy relief, No Pension plans that work, No employee benefits, No Unions, No enforcement of hiring undocumented workers, Manager Stock Options, School loan laws, All this legislations favors who. Not you my friend. Most of you are born poor and you are going to die poor. You live in a country that has a high tech plantation and you don't know it. You spend your first 25 years in school, the next 40 working and the last 25 living on Social Security. Thats nice, and that is why the government want those immigrants to come in so they can fund your retirement plan through their FICA tax. You see the FICA is the funding source of your Social Security.

oh the benefits of being a war mongering country.

trust me on this one most americans are more concerned about the rising price of gas than the suicide rate of returning soldiers from iraq.

this is a country of imperialists. war deaths and suicide rates are a minor issue to most americans.