why do you think an alarming amount of soldiers are commiting suicide?

Question

I wonder if they are learning something whilst away that is causing a horrible depressed state...I have a lot of theories myself I'd like to see if anyone feels similarly......

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/14/iraq/main593160.shtml why in the hell would someone make that up? gosh there are some heartless bastards in this world....

and frankly this mandated resource is the best I could come up with without being biased.....cbs is actually not all that trustworthy but at least you can get an idea of what I'm speaking of

Answer 1

Because they are realizing they were tricked by their government into fighting an unlawful war created from lies told to us by George W. Bush.

Answer 2

It is difficult to be a solidier or a civilian and be in an area of conflict or war. I remember my cousin who was a US Marine. He was stationed in Viet Nam bakc in the 1960's. He was just a kid of 19 or 20 and it was his job to protect the ships while they were at dock. The Viet Cong would send toddlers onto the docks with bombs and other explosives strapped to them. It was my cousins job to destroy these toddlers. It was his undoing as he had a toddler of his own at home. That is the kind of thing some of the troops deal with. An adult is one thing, but an innocent babe is somethings else again....and my cousin couldn't live with what he had to do. He probably would have felt the same even if it was an adult.That was 40 years ago, and I can only imagine what our troops of today see and do in Iraq. My cousin told me all of this so I believe it was true.

Answer 3

O.K. I read the CBS news link you provided. In peacetime the suicide rate hovered between 10 and 12 in every one thousand troops in the Army. Now the rate has gone up to 13.5 in every one thousand troops. And you use the adjective "alarming". That's quite a stretch.
While on the subject of casualties, you should also know that 7,500 active duty members of the armed forces died between 1993 and 2000. There were 9,555 active duty deaths between 1980 and 1984. Both of those periods would be considered peacetime. The total combat and non-combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are nowhere near those figures.
I think this story is yet another example of the news media trying to draw a crowd. It also proves that there are no journalism majors who met core curriculum requirements in basic math or history during their college days.

Answer 4

The stresses of war are intense. Some of these people have been to the war zone multiple times. The long deployments away from loved ones... It wears a person down.

There are suicide prevention programs in the military. But there is still the stigma of reaching out for help.

And I honestly don't think the military is really all that concerned about a persons well being when in a combat zone. Once deployed, I'd say it would be pretty hard to get back stateside just because you are having problems...

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=127992&ran=64744

Answer 5

Yes, i saw that but don't remember where. It's not surprising, war is ugly and we just don't see what it looks like(we don't see the bodies from bombings or the flag covered coffins like we did during Vietnam so they fixed that). Neither do the troops until they're in the middle of it.

Many times the real depression doesn't hit until they get home. Suicides have been up every year since the war started. War is nasty business. And your life will never be the same afterward, even if you have all your limbs.

Answer 6

1. Immediate access to firearms/bullets.(this is also cited as one of the reason for cops having higher suicide rates than general pop).
2. Multiple deployments.
3. Mlitary is communal. Some don't fit in. Others become ostracized and alienated for various reasons.
4. Military-wide shortage of good mental health professionals. Limited access for many soldiers to them.
5. Deployment magnifies the normal problems associated with being young/being military (i.e., Dear John letters, discovering infidelity, fearing infidelity).
6. PTSD/Traumatic brain injury.
7. Lack of quality resources to relieve stress/anxiety associated with combat or lack of access to them.
8. Failure of command to track/monitor soldier's mental health assessment.
9. Machismo of the military makes it difficult for a mentally/emotionally injured soldier to report such problems for fear of reprisal/ridicule.
10. Homesick.
11. Youth/immaturity of our fighting force - thus unable to cope with the above.

Yes, suicides have increased for a myriad of reasons. The military has tried to minimized the coverage of this issue.

For example, five soldiers killed themselves in one brigade in 2006 that I served with, but they were all reported as "non-combat related deaths" only. That's how they appear in all the roll-call for deaths in Iraq. They won't say suicide. This doesn't even count all the "suicide by accident" deaths that are likely occurring.

I had some involvement after all these suicides and numerous suicide attempts/ideations from a military attorney perspective. I used to be a psych tech with the military and served in Iraq with two friends who were Army psychologists. We compared notes often.

The reality of war is that it produces these very real consequences.

Answer 7

It is hard to be a soldier. They have to defend their country and that means that sometimes when civilians get in the way or are used as shields by the enemy it weighs heavily on a soldiers mind and they don't want to kill an innocent person so the kill themselves as they can't live with the knowledge of killing an innocent

Answer 8

Some of them can't handle this huge problems, so they do and see so many bad things and when they come back home, they are still in the war zone, they can't handle in the civilian world no more. I think also there is not much help for them, if than is to late. I'm very sorry for each one, made decision for suicide. This people fight for Freedom and lost their life, because they feel very lonely.

Answer 9

The numbers in that news story are just wrong.

It doesn't measure suicide rates for people of the same age in civillian life.

If you look at the numbers in this way combat troops have much lower suicide rates than non-combat troops, lower still than other young men of the same age.

Once again believing what you hear/read in main stream news will cause you to be dumber.

Answer 10

Veterans commit suicide at a lesser rate than the general population...regardless of what the media says.
I also recall reading that suicide rate were lesser [in the military] in peacetime than in times of war.

Answer 11

the things they see over there are things that no one could ever just forget and "get past". it takes a lot of support when they get home and a lot of communication to be able to continue in a normal state of mind.

my brother has been over twice and hes a medic. hes seen things that no one should ever have to see...but is a strong soldier and hes proud of what he does. he saves the ones he can and remembers the ones he couldn't. it takes a strong mind and a lot of discipline to live like that and he has what it takes.

there are a lot of single, young soldiers that dont have anyone to take care of them when they get home from iraq. they go back and live in their barracks and continue living the military lifestyle without someone to talk to and let them know that they care and love him. thats why they just give up. they dont know what else to do.

im glad my husband knows he has me because i know that the next 3 years of my life will be hard from him coming home to learning to live life remembering the things hes seen. but hes proud to do it because this is the life he chose and hes happy to know that he is helping lay down ground that thousands of other americans are to afraid to help with. hes my hero...