Army suicides reach two-decade high.
By on May 29th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Army suicides reach two-decade high.
The AP reports that Pentagon officials said today that “108 troops committed suicide in 2007, the most since 1990.” Suicides have been rising despite a “host of efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by lengthy and repeated deployments to Iraq.” The 108 suicides last year followed 102 in 2006 and 85 in 2005.
View Most Popular
Advertisement
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
Reports
In depth studies on select topics
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bailout
Big Oil
Bolton
Bush
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Earmarks
Economy
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
GI Bill
Global Warming
Guantanamo
Health Care
Immigration
Iran
Iraq
Justice
Kristol
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
McCain
McClellan
Media
Military
O'Hanlon
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Politics
Race
Radical Right
RNC Convention
Rove
Terrorism
Third Bush Term
Torture
Veterans
Wiretapping
Women's Rights
ArchivesBlog Roll
yeah, of course, they keep getting redeployed so they’re convinced they’ll never get out! the way they probably see it, they’re already dead. It’s abusive what is going on over there.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:57 amThis administration has so much blood on their hands, it can never be made right. They have caused more pain and suffering in the name of greed, without any checks or balances to hold them accountable. At this point, the Congress’s inaction to stop this continued nightmare makes them accomplices. May they be haunted by every face of every fallen soldier.
These men and women deserve so much better than this administrations lack of compassion for what they are going through. My deepest sympathy to all the families that have suffered a loss.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:01 amAll of a sudden the Pentagon cares about troop suicides. Why, because they need a diversion from McClellan’s book. What’s next, the VA is going to start actually diagnosing PTSD? Puhlease, spare us the false concern.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:02 amOMG, what misleading figures.
I’m sure there were also plenty of army suicides in 1939-45…I wonder why???.
Did you read the freaking article? It said the most since 1990. But that is OK for you, right? How many combat tours have you served, Chickenhawk?
May 29th, 2008 at 11:03 amSo rogers must be RogerX2. Same compassionate a$$hole as ever.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:03 amGreg Mitchell says there are 1000 suicide attempts per month. The VA is lying. It’s a huge scandal…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ greg-mitchell/ epidemic-of-soldier-suici_b_98349.html
May 29th, 2008 at 11:04 amHighlighting yet again that the only ones asked to sacrifice for their country are the mostly poor, working class stiffs that make up most of the all volunteer army. Mere cannon fodder for Bush’s imperialism.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
May 29th, 2008 at 11:10 amMany soldiers are caught in the never-ending stop loss. You don’t want to re-enlist, but you can’t get out anyway. And if you don’t re-enlist then you are not promotable and get no bonus, but you still get sent to Iraq for another 15 months. After a while, soldiers lose hope. Then after 2 or 3 or 4 tours, you finally get to come home, and have tremendous trouble readjusting to normal civilian life. With a six-month waiting period to get into VA mental health, many soldiers start to “self-medicate” and try to deal with it on their own. Tri-care usually won’t cover civilian psychiatrists. There are a lot of other resources out there, but most soldiers don’t know about them.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:14 amReally, except maybe to the family of the deceased serviceman you ignorant A-hole.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:15 amrogers Says:
There is nothing sighnifigant about army suicides in a time of war…my point was accurate.
Spell much?
I take offense about military suicides being ‘insignificant’. More than one Marine buddy of mine has chosen that outcome, and I still grieve for those lost, young lives.
Did you serve?
If so, you must have been clerical, because anyone ever in combat faced death daily.
I’ve got an idea…if you can’t say anything nice about our soldiers, maybe you could just STFU.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:15 amI don’t know Zimzone but rogers is ignorant even for a civilian. In fact he barely sounds human. Then again, chimps have more compassion that the neocon chickenhawks.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:17 amIn an all volunteer army that is doing what it is trained to do—fight a war to “defend our freedoms” —I’d think a soldier’s suicide would indeed be cause for concern.
Maybe they are all cowards and traitors? Maybe they should be prevented from committing suicide so they can then be shot for cowardice and treachery?
And as a perfectly natural and insignificant event in time of war as you claim, it would follow that suicide attempts would not be restricted to any particular rank. I wonder how many generals have attempted to commit suicide? Why don’t you do some research on that, rogers.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:21 amSenator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), has proposed a bill that would provide extra pay for stop-lossed troops. The hope here is that the civilian leadership of the military would not be so quick to hand out stop-loss orders to 80,000 troops at a time if each one is going to cost them. If it passes, and stop-loss is either ended or greatly decreased, I think it would go a long way towards ending some of the despair that many of these troops feel.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:21 amSenator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), has proposed a bill that would provide extra pay for stop-lossed troops.
I wish Lautenberg well on his effort, but to BushCo, the troops are just like hard-driven Humvees; ride em till they break and then throw them away, out of sight. Don’t waste money on fixing them, just get some new ones.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:37 amRogers, why do you hate the troops?
May 29th, 2008 at 11:38 amSeriosuly, “nothing significant”? Shame on you.
In fact, kill yourself.
Rogers,
Both Zimzone and I have asked hopw many combat tours you have had, and no response. Guess that is the answer, huh Chickenhawk?
May 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am#18 - rogers Says:
————————————————————
“As I said, your lack of logical counter-arguments is only an admission of my corectness.”
May 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Actually, your argument is the following:
1 - Suicides among miiltary rise during war time.
2 - Suicides among military fall druing non-war time.
3 - Therefore, to reduce military suicides, stop the war.
It’s a simple syllogism that points to the following facts:
May 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am1 - If you are FOR the war, you are FOR increased military suicides.
2 - If you are AGAINST the war, you are AGAINST increased military suicides.
3 - Therefore, people AGAINST the war are the only people who want to support LOWER suicide rates among the military.
Nice try at backpedaling Roger_Roger. I guess that’s why the name change so you can deny being for the war now. Trolls!
May 29th, 2008 at 12:11 pmRogers jokes:
As I said, your lack of logical counter-arguments is only an admission of my corectness.
Rogers, some logic speaks for itself. If suicides are insignificant, please screw yourself with vigor, and promptly terminate your pathetic life.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pmWow Roger is an a-hole of the first degree.
Even if Roger’s point is somewhat edible, which it is not, it reinforces many of the important reasons to AVOID GOING TO WAR AT ALL COSTS. Ass.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:15 pmJust effing sad beyond belief. And this is just the beginning. Many VietNam vets who committed suicide did it several to many years after returning home and trying to live with themselves. Finding out that they couldn’t.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:34 pmRoger_roger,
If you are AGAINST the war, and are also not too concerned about the suicide rates, then does that mean you also don’t support the troops? This is just like when I was in Vietnam; many of the American people hated both the war and those of us who were in it. I was hoping that didn’t happen this time around.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pmForTruth
I hope you meant legible or readable instead of edible. I wouldn’t want to eat something that is obviously crap!
May 29th, 2008 at 12:48 pm#21 - rogers Says:
————————————————————”So you admit I was right, and so the only way I could be wrong is with your dumb assumption that I am for the war..all I did was make a point.”
May 29th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I never claimed otherwise. Why are you so eager to disagree with anyone who uses your reference points? Why do you assume that I assume you are FOR the war?
You’d think you’re not used to people being neutral to you, or you’ve gotten so sensitive that you attack anyone who dares to use your name, ROGER!
May 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pmI know this
report has been questioned (claims 6,256 veteran suicides — 17/day — in 2005). What are the correct numbers? Is the figure 108 in 2007 for suicides committed in Iraq?
Much thanks.
MW
May 29th, 2008 at 2:57 pmadmission of my corectness.
Poor roger twice,the child left behind. You know if you are going to point out your CORRECTNESS,you might want to at least spell it CORRECTLY. I mean OHNESTLY!
May 29th, 2008 at 3:10 pmsee the story 2 posts up (that is 2 threads later): Head of VA says that PTSD is overblown. Kind of like veterans’ suicides?
May 29th, 2008 at 5:18 pm