June was worst month for Army suicides, statistics show

June was worst month for Army suicides, statistics show

www.cnn.com

Washington (CNN) -- More U.S. soldiers killed themselves last month than in recent Army history, according to Army statistics released Thursday, confounding officials trying to reverse the grim trend.

The statistics show that 32 soldiers killed themselves in June, the highest number in a single month since the Vietnam era. Twenty-one of them were on active duty, while 11 were in the National Guard or Army Reserve in an inactive status.

Seven of those soldiers killed themselves while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Army numbers.

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This is so horrible. It is very sad that the stress of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing brave soldiers to commit suicide. The Iraq casualties are few and far between, but the casualties in Afghanistan are rapidly increasing. It looks like the more soldiers that die in combat, the more commit suicide.

I really hope this trend doesn't continue.

www.cnn.com
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Originally posted by SUICIDEHK45


This is so horrible. It is very sad that the stress of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing brave soldiers to commit suicide. The Iraq casualties are few and far between, but the casualties in Afghanistan are rapidly increasing. It looks like the more soldiers that die in combat, the more commit suicide.

I really hope this trend doesn't continue.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm not so sure these were the "brave" soldiers. These were probably the
disillusioned soldiers who joined to the service for personal reasons,
like education, or to escape a dire circumstance, only to find the
circumstance didn't change and the price for their education is a bit of their
soul...

Support our troops!!

BRING THEM HOME

reply to post by rival


I feel that no matter what reason these people signed up for you put any normal human in a situation like war and they are at high risk of going insane unfortunately they think the only way out from what they have done or seen is suicide it is terrible we need our troops here on OUR soil defending OUR borders. not doing the dirty work for the rich fat slobs and their slutty offspring.

[edit on 15-7-2010 by -W1LL]

It truly unfortunate,. like the earlier poster said some join for certain reasons and the few don't really understand the raw life of military. They think at sign up it will be cool,. or they could handle "kickna$$" but when the reality of the day to day grind in war sets in it becomes too much for some. The government really should rotate every 6 months for mental vacation. It is just not realistic..But you are owned when you sign up,. the realities are never shown at the recruiters office. war is hell

I speculate that this phenomenon could be indicative of several differences between today's world and wars and those of previous generations. I believe that it is possible that the human race as a whole is becoming more evolved and more spiritually enlightened as time passes, and that the average good-hearted man on the ground is becoming increasingly aware that the United States is no longer involved in ideologically sound conflict.

I think that through the proliferation of information on the internet through sources like ATS, Wikileaks, Drudge, etc, that the soldiers are not as isolated and insulated as they once were, and therefore are not as prone as past generations to believe information that they are spoon fed, and more apt to think for themselves, which makes them harder to control. I think that the shear volume of information available that points to government corruption leads them to question themselves and their cause. The volumes of declassified documents that prove that the government has experimented on US citizens and military personnel alike and forsaken them to suffering and death, and military personnel, just like the average Joes on the street, are waking up.

Once the veil is lifted, and these men and women who by and large are honorable men and women of conscience, realize that they no longer have the moral high ground, and that they serve a government that shares many attributes of our enemies in WWI and WWII, I believe that this realization can be too much for many of them. They realize that they have killed, maimed, shattered families, and worse at the behest of crooked, corrupt masters who used lies and deceptions to pluck their patriotic heartstrings and whip them into a destructive fervor that they cannot reconcile upon being confronted with the sad, sickening reality of the situation and the world that they have helped to shape through their actions.

The US military was once a mighty sword of virtue that was wielded sparingly against tyranny, but now is merely a tool that is manipulated by the twisted and cancerous hand of a perverted government blinded by greed and an ever increasing lust for power.

My heart goes out to our service men and women. To those who have fought, suffered, died, witnessed unspeakable attrocities, and who bear the burden of having lost their brothers in arms and their innocence in such unspeakable ways as should not be experienced by intelligent beings, I offer you my sincere thanks that I am shielded from these horrors by your bravery, I offer you my sincere condolences at the losses that you have and will suffer in defense of our shared ideals, and I offer you my pity that you have been duped into serving our govenment, which in it's current state, is unworthy of your loyalty and your sacrifice.

In your hearts, you serve the memory of our once glorious republic that was given to us by our founding fathers and all of the men and women who fought and died to secure our liberty from the clutches of tyranny. This is the proud tradition of our military, and it is my sincere hope that our government will some day be worthy of your service again. And quietly, we all hope, that should the tipping point finally be reached, and we find ourselves facing an outright grab for our remaining liberties, that you will join us - that we will all join in opposing tyranny, as is our proud tradition as nation, as a people.

We keep you in our hearts and minds and pray for your safe return.

May God bless and keep us all.

-Bryan

edited to correct grammar and sentence structure.

[edit on 15-7-2010 by belowcommonknowledge]

[edit on 15-7-2010 by belowcommonknowledge]

[edit on 15-7-2010 by belowcommonknowledge]

Originally posted by rival

I'm not so sure these were the "brave" soldiers. These were probably the
disillusioned soldiers who joined to the service for personal reasons,
like education, or to escape a dire circumstance, only to find the
circumstance didn't change and the price for their education is a bit of their
soul...

Everyone is a mixture of brave and cowardly. Hopefully, soldier or not, one will be able to be braver in life rather than more cowardly.

But do not discount the power of war to do things to people's minds. It does not matter if you are "brave" or "cowardly," eveybody has a breaking point.

Also besides suicide there are lots of other nasty little mental and physical problems that soldiers pick up due to to stress, things that are much less noticed...long-term depression, obsessive-compulsive syndrome, aggression, inability to integrate into "normal" society again, muscle twitches, nightmares, insomnia, substance abuse, and so on and so forth. Also soldiers are exposed to all kinds of toxic situations: dealing with toxic chemicals, poorly-dressed wounds, heavy metal toxicity from any number of sources, ear damage, eye damage, the list goes on and on...

All sorts of stuff that many people live with quietly for years without "seeking help" or anything, just trying to keep their pain a secret and get on with their lives. Ask combat vets from any war, any part of earth -- if they are willing, most of them will be able to tell you lots more of disturbing stuff that you probably don't want to hear. The very fact that they go on living and usually suffering in silence makes them brave men.

if you don't go insane murdering women and children for profit and oil, then somethings wrong with you. especially since your fighting a people that have tremendous belief in God, and you go in with your only protection a false idol. a piece of cloth that americans worship more than God. they go into a holy war believing that lying thieving politicians, corrupted and destroyed by evil to such a degree that they believe that murder and war are good things, will protect them. they don't give a crap about soldiers any more than a chess player cares about a pawn. all people like bush, obama, palin, etc care about is power. to rule over people and have them do their bidding. america has been hijacked by two criminal and immoral organizations: the republicans and the democrats. the sad part is that to change and become a senator or president you have to play by their rules or else you don't stand a chance.

the delusion that is america got shattered by the reality the rest of the world is in. these soldiers couldn't handle it , but how many people can kill or blow up a building, then go in to investigate and find childrens heads 30 ft from their bodies or a family huddling in corner trying to find protection burned and charred beyond recognition. the sad part is if you cause something like that or witness it the more you fight your normal human reactions, the more insane you go. killing people, including the insurgents, who are completely innocent and have not hurt any americans in anyway before america invaded is murder. murdering innocent people is unnatural and destroys and damages the soul and spirit.

Confronted with death and destruction, bound to a service that is hardly defending freedom, but rather adding immesurably to the misery and horror in the world,strictly for the power and profits of the few.
Death by ones own hand becomes an answer to the dillema which our servicemen and women face.
It is not surprising that this is increasing because we hold ideals which the govt and big buisness have long ago given up.
I look upon these deaths as voices crying in the wilderness, and my heart goes out to those who have taken this exit, and those who have been left to suffer the aftermath.....
May God bless them all.....

Originally posted by stirling
Confronted with death and destruction, bound to a service that is hardly defending freedom, but rather adding immesurably to the misery and horror in the world,strictly for the power and profits of the few.
Death by ones own hand becomes an answer to the dillema which our servicemen and women face.
It is not surprising that this is increasing because we hold ideals which the govt and big buisness have long ago given up.
I look upon these deaths as voices crying in the wilderness, and my heart goes out to those who have taken this exit, and those who have been left to suffer the aftermath.....
May God bless them all.....

Interesting point,..I often get into confrontations with many about your very comments.. War is generally about money,power and material things.. not much to do with freedom.

reply to post by belowcommonknowledge


Thank you for writing all you did. I read it out loud to send it back into the ether so it can grow.

I felt your sincerity and genuine desire to lay it out eloquently and on point.

I read somewhere that as the light gets brighter it reveals more dirt. It's easy to see how they would internalize their actions as guilt during such times and feel shame. They should not however as they were blindly led to do such bidding, unaware of the truth and true nature of the men who placed then in such places to perform such things.

I believe this is by design however. In as much as the true spirit of this awakening is love, the powers that be, looking to maintain control are aware that it's going to get darker before the dawn and the more warriors they can kill on a battlefield or who take their own lives reduces the numbers, strength and moral of the resistance we know is coming in the face of their constant encroachment on our lives. In effect, it seems they're just covering their bases.

Here is an article about honoring service members who commit suicide.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Here is an article from Jacob C Hornberger. He is linking the increasing number of military suicides to guilty consciences - An epidemic of morals.

Military Suicides

Its an interesting read.