By Danielle Baussan

A group of retired high level U.S. military officers are calling on Congress to repeal an amendment to the FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that they say interferes with efforts to prevent military suicides.

USA Today reported last month that 2012 was the worst year for military suicides since careful tracking began in 2001. A military suicide occurs about once every 80 minutes and most of these suicides are a spontaneous act committed with a private firearm. But medical professionals and commanding officers can’t even ask at-risk service members about concerns about suicide or whether a suicidal service member has a gun at home. That’s due to an FY 2011 NDAA provision, Section 1062, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) that prevents any questions about firearms, even when a military member is thought to be considering suicide or a harm to others.

In a letter sent to Members of Congress last week, twelve retired military leaders, including Retired Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis of the U.S. Army, said Congress should repeal Inhofe’s measure as “an immediate step that can and must be taken now to save lives.” This is a clear call for action by military leaders who have seen the impacts of “suicide gag orders” firsthand.

Now, it’s up to Congress — really, the Senate — to make it happen. The New York Times quoted Inhofe supporting an amendment “if it clears up any confusion” about whether people can ask about weapons to prevent suicide. Earlier this year, the Republican-led House of Representatives cleared up that confusion, passing language in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to allow commanding officers and health officials to ask service members about suicidal thoughts and private guns.

So we’ve got the original sponsor on record supporting efforts to clarify the language, a House-passed NDAA that includes that language, and highly decorated military officials asking Congress for their help. And yet, there’s not one amendment in the current Senate version of the NDAA to help prevent military suicide.

It’s time for the Senate to take a stand and include some version of the House language in their NDAA. Leaving an issue like this on the cutting room floor does a disservice members of the U.S. military.

According to yesterday’s U.S. Army press release, up to 20 active-duty soldiers committed suicide during the month of October. The army includes confirmed suicides and cases of death in which suicide is suspected in its total. October’s numbers are slightly higher than the numbers for the previous month, during which 15 active-duty members of the army are suspected to have committed suicide.

So far this year, 166 active-duty soldiers may have committed suicide. If all 166 cases are confirmed, then the number has already surpassed last year’s total of 165 confirmed active-duty army suicides. The news indicates that the army’s long-running struggle with suicide is tragically escalating.

Earlier this year, the army attempted to combat the epidemic through the use of social media outlets like Facebook to reach out to army members. They’ve also created an app aimed at army members who have contemplated suicide. The app, according to its creator Dr. Nigel Bush, “has the photos, it might have sound messages from loved ones, it might have videos of family trips and so on.”

More conventional strategies like presentations, which the army has also utilized, have been criticized. One Dartmouth professor and expert on suicide told NPR earlier this year, “They call this kind of training ‘death by PowerPoint’…what they might not be as informed about are some individual strategies that they can take to maybe cope better with the situation at hand.” According to the New York Times, “nearly half of all suicides in the military having been committed with privately owned firearms.” Strategies like encouraging “friends and families of potentially suicidal service members to safely store or voluntarily remove personal firearms from their homes” have also been suggested.

TIME magazine detailed the rise of suicides in the army in August:

“Suicides have spiked since 2005, even as the war in Iraq has ended, and the conflict in Afghanistan begins to wind down. The drip-drip-drip of statistics tells the story: mental-health problems were the top reason troops were hospitalized last year, according to a May Pentagon report. Nearly 22,000 troops were hospitalized with mental disorders last year, 54% more than in 2007.”

Earlier this year, a high-ranking army official wrote, “Suicide is the toughest enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the Army.” Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has described suicide in the army as “one of the most frustrating problems.”

Mitt Romney has spent considerable effort trying to avoid foreign policy and national security this campaign season. But when he’s had to engage, he’s forced to strike a delicate balance between satisfying his neocon advisers and right-wing war base on the one hand — while speaking to the rest of the country, which has no appetite for the militaristic Republican policies that have plagued this country since 2001, on the other.

In recent weeks, Romney made good on a promise he made earlier this year to a wealthy donor that he would try to exploit a foreign policy crisis for political gain. “If something of that nature presents itself,” Romney said, referring to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, “I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity.” With the attack that killed four Americans at the U.S diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya last month, Romney has done just that.

The basis of Romney’s foreign policy critique of President Obama is that Obama went around the world and apologized for America after he became president. Of course, this never happened, but the baseless attack has been a hallmark from Romney’s campaign with respect to foreign policy. Indeed, Romney’s foray into foreign policy has been a bumpy road. Here’s a timeline from throughout the 2012 presidential campaign that lays it all out:

– Romney accused President Obama of “mission creep” and “mission muddle” in Libya. “Military action cannot be under-deliberated and ad hoc,” he said. Libyan rebels ousted then-Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi five months later. (In his book, Romney attacked Obama for appeasing Qaddafi.) [4/21/2011]

– Romney announces he is officially running for president and, in doing so, chides Obama for “leading from behind” in Libya. One wonders if Romney would criticize Nelson Mandela, who once said: “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” [6/02/2011]

– Romney says he will let the generals dictate his Afghanistan policy. “I want those troops to come home based upon not politics, not based upon economics, but instead based upon the conditions on the ground determined by the generals,” he said. [6/13/2011]
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President Obama has received more than $500,000 in donations from military members, a figure that dwarfs the amount Mitt Romney raised by more than $250,000. That’s according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan election money tracking site, which released a report on October 15th detailing the political spending habits of military personnel.

Here’s the Open Secrets chart for total donations:

The trend has stayed consistent throughout the campaign. By September 2011, military members donated $13,000 to the Romney campaign; in contrast, his opponent Ron Paul had received more than $90,000. President Obama out gained Romney by more than $50,000 during that same time period.

Months later, after Romney all but secured the nomination, more of the military donations started moving toward Obama, who raised $184,000 from military members from January 2011 to March 2012, and away from other candidates. Romney’s total only went up $32,000 to a paltry $45,000 in total by that same point.

Obama has a strong track record when it comes to securing donations from military members; in 2008, then Sen. Obama raised more than $300,000 from military service members who donated more than $200, besting his opponent Sen. John McCain by $100,000.