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BloodstarLiberals and Libertarians on Everything and Nothing |
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What are we doing wrong?
The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone — six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.
The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.
If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January.
We’re finally getting things stabilized, and now our soldiers are killing themselves faster than combat can. What are we doing to the very people who are putting their lives on the line? and what can we do to help?
Not sure its a problem, so much as “something noticed.”
Suicide records in the military have only been kept since the 80s, and we have never kept them during a long term military action, such as Vietnam, Korea, World War II or World War I.
Take the stress of combat active locales add the natural seasonal malaise because of the holidays add some economic woe and then throw on your regular helping usual personal problems, and you are brewing a formula for increased Suicide Rate. Doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to see that any of those reasons are soild enough reasons for higher suicide rates, and when combined WHOA.
I’d bet that Suicide Rate for the entire US are probably higher for last month than they have been in a while. Something noticed, but not sure its a drop everything national emergency.