‘Non-Hostile’ Fire - Iraq: Rise in Rate of G.I. Suicides

[dArKeR]

The rate of U.S. military suicides is rising in Iraq. The Army needs to tell us more about the numbers and the causes

The “war on terror” is often interpreted through a lot of cold, faceless numbers. Here’s an attempt to personify one. First, a refresher: The number 87 relates to the billions requested to rebuild Iraq. The num­ber 130,000 counts the service men and women on the ground there. The num­bers 1,947 and 343 tally how many of them have been injured and have died in and out of combat. Here’s where it’s time to pause for a moment. Two numbers within that fatality figure are particularly alarm­ing: 14 and 12 represent the suicides and the possible suicides that have occurred among U.S. troops in Iraq.

THE CONFIRMED SUICIDES alone represent a 31 percent jump over the number of self-inflicted military deaths that occur in an average year back home in garrisons—a number consistent with the general population. The subject is complicated because families don’t want to deal with suicides, and the Army is hesitant to confirm the suicides of soldiers, for understandable reasons. But we should know about the numbers and the causes, because depression shouldn’t be yet another enemy on the battlefield.

http://msnbc.com/news/984828.asp?0cl=c1

Tell their mothers and wives a few is within a "Normal Bell Curve".

What has happened to my country and the people who run it and report on it?

Not one suicide is accepted.

[Mari333]

1. Not one is acceptable amen amen amen

The media wont put a FACE ON THE FAMILIES and are drawing the curtains on the bodybags....Hopefully tommorrow so many hundreds of thousands of outraged americans will wake up they will see that we wont accept the blackout any longer....

[loudnclear]

2. This is so terribly sad if true

What is happening to us? Don't freepers even realize what is happening to them? To hear their vicious attacks on anyone who dares to disagree with our government's policies or Bush is so sickening. Why would anyone want to fight let alone die to protect the rights and lives of these hateful people?

[lebkuchen]

3. The Army says not one military death, suicide or car crash, is acceptable

Rummy just sees it as another body. His attitude, subscribed to by others, is becoming less appreciated each day by military folks.

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=18274

Comment ‘reprehensible’

As a military veteran and a mother whose son is currently serving in Afghanistan, I found the following comment by U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt Jr., R-Wash., reprehensible: “The story of what we’ve done in the postwar period is remarkable. It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day.” (The comment was recently reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)

Rep. Nethercutt’s callousness toward the very men and women who put their lives on the line every day in service of our country is inexcusable. There is not one soccer field in Iraq or Afghanistan worth the life of one American soldier. But Rep. Nethercutt’s comment is definitely worth his job.

Kimberly Scott
Peoria, Ariz.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. The suicides are bad enough, but the total casualty figures are not...

...correct, IMHO. Here's an article that hints at numbers that are far worse:

Military hospital sees no letup in Iraq conflict casualties
<http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/101803_news_hospital.shtml>

"LANDSTUHL, Germany - Major combat in Iraq has been declared over for nearly six months, but there's been no letup for the staff at the U.S. military's largest overseas hospital."

...snip...

"...workers at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center are still putting in 60-hour weeks caring for wounded and ill soldiers..."

...snip...

"...average of 44 new patients a day..."

...snip...

"The hospital has treated 1,800 patients so far from the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and more than 7,100 from the Iraq mission."

Okay...what percentage of the incoming patients are "ill"? Does anyone really believe that the so-called official figures referenced in this article of 336 dead and 1500 wounded from actions in Iraq is true? If true, why has the Pentagon recently ordered that the media NOT photograph the incoming caskets?

[leftchick]

5. fuzzy math by the repukes....

Notice how the number of our soldiers in Iraq now is 130,000? I do believe at the start of this fiasco it was 150,000. Now where have all of those soldiers gone? :shrug: