'Crushed,' the U.S. Soldier Wrote -- and Then He Was Dead

For the past five years, since shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, I have chronicled -- often a lonely pursuit -- the deaths of nearly one thousand U.S. military personnel who have died in that war from "non-hostile" causes. These include deaths from illness, accident, friendly fire and suicide. The suicide rate has surged in the past few years, as multiple tours increased, and this has always seemed especially haunting for me.

Word emerged yesterday of another mysterious, non-hostile fatality. His name is Jeremiah Hughes. The army is investigating.

But the final "mood" icon on his MySpace page, I discovered today, was a frown -- with the word: "Crushed."

Army Spc. Jeremiah Hughes, 26, left for Iraq in December with the Stryker brigade from Hawaii -- three years after a previous tour. An article in the Honolulu Advertiser yesterday quotes an entry from his MySpace page just before he was deployed: "I'm gonna hate being away from my wife for over a year. And I'm gonna hate not being able to spend time with her, or my friends, or my dogs. I'm really gonna dislike not being able to drink every once in a while when I get irritated by the things around me. And then of course, I can't say that I'm gonna be too fond of people shooting at me again, or trying to blow me up again, or any of that stupid stuff."

The Pentagon announced that he died Wednesday in Balad, Iraq, "from injuries sustained in a noncombat incident in Abu Ghraib." His wife survives him.

Often, as I have written, local newspapers are first to reveal the true causes of death, gathering information from family or friends. There are several chapters about these sad cases in my new book on Iraq and the media, including the story of Alyssa Peterson (which I recently highlighted here) who took her life after refusing to engage in torture interrogations.

Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It has been hailed by our own Arianna, Glenn Greenwald, Bill Moyers and features a preface by Bruce Springsteen and a foreword by Joe Galloway.

Comments

[hoodrat]

They cover up the TRUE numbers. Soldiers die all the time for non-battle reasons. How many are listed as suicides, or those wounded, who are sent to Germany, or back here - and die. And WHY does the MSM let the government get away with not filming caskets coming home? Should we NOT see the results of our "foreign policy"? Too busy worrying about who's bitter?

[mfsomom]

so tragic. we cannot afford the continuing loss of the brighest and bravest among us. My heart is with his family, friends, and all who knew and loved Jeremiah. As of this morning when I checked, the casualty toll is 4037. When is enough enough folks? The blood is on all our hands who do nothing.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Sigh.

Add my name as well to the "Where's the outrage?" group.

[ljsfolly]

I would think a great national service would be for a cable news channel to run a total of war dead that shows the ones not in the battle but of suicide both away from home and home. This number should be out where all can see and know the personal costs of this war that go beyond the "enemy". This count along with pictures of the caskets coming home should be printed in every newspaper for if no one faces this level of pain and cost of this war then we are allowed to ignore and not be forced to deal with the realities our soldiers face. We have been put in a position where as the war is just like a trailer for a war movie that we can choose to watch or ignore. The Vietnam war was front and center daily in the news and in print and this war isn't even given any attention many days as the stories of the day include the election and the stars doing their thing like Britney. What is wrong with MSM is also what is wrong with us. We are allowing the story to be put on the back page.

[S1m0n]

"Crushed" is more informative than "rosebud", but not by much.

[smca]

The death of GI Alyssa R. Peterson is a war crime.

[disgustedcitizen]

What will it take to wake the citizen of this country from their slumber? As rixhex56 says, "where is the outrage?"

[rixhex56]

When we see these events on an individual level like this, it puts a more in-depth humanity on the entire situation in Iraq. Then, in his most casual and dismissive, evil demeanor, Cheney has the gaul to say, "The volunteered."

What he, and others seem to forget so often, is that THIS war, this ILLEGAL war of aggression against a nation posing NO THREAT to our nation, was NOT what they volunteerd for. They volunteered as PROTECTORS of our nation, not as agressors towards other non-threatening nations.

These Republican politicians who sent these men into this war should all be seen as the criminals they are for causing the sort of human catastrophe demonstrated in this young Army Spc. Jeremiah Hughes' writing, and in his unnecessary death, and in the ongoing suffering of his surviving family members and all those whose lives have been destroyed by this senseless crime committed in our nation's name.

Where is the outrage?!

[aceholiday]

very well written

[DrLegacy]

a tragedy, at all levels.