COLLUSIONZ - charged conservatism

Why are so many people following Obama and his march towards Socialism? Examine the American News, Entertainment and Academic industries. These industries have been saturated by the progressive liberal left. They have successfully more

Armed Services Suicides - Hope or Hype

Recent headlines bring us the following, my comments are below…..

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer – Tue May 12, 7:42 pm ET

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military command launched an investigation Tuesday into whether it offers adequate mental health care to its soldiers, a day after a sergeant finishing up his third tour of Iraq allegedly shot and killed five comrades at a clinic on a U.S. base.

Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, of Sherman, Texas, was taken into custody outside a mental health clinic at Camp Liberty following Monday’s shooting and charged with five counts of murder and one of aggravated assault, Maj. Gen. David Perkins said.

The case, the deadliest of the war involving soldier-on-soldier violence, has cast a spotlight on combat stress and emotional problems resulting from frequent deployments to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Are our Armed Services providing adequate combat stress and emotional support services for our soldiers in need?

Let me be clear, I do not intend to diminish combat stress related problems, our soldiers deserve the very best. My real concern is with the media spin that attempts to cast a negative shadow on war with the intent to sway public opinion. Its one thing to critisize the war effort, but quite another to exploit misfortune to further a political agenda.

I have done some searching and it seems to me that suicide rates in the armed services are NOT completely out of line with normal civilian statistics. The rates may be higher today then yesterday, they might be too high and they should be lowered if possible, but there seems to a be an element of the media spin that wants to promote the notion that suicide rates are out of control and way beyond the pale. From what I can find, normal rates for the civilian population in the US is around 18 males out of 100,000. The current armed services numbers are around 20 males out of 100,000. I found reports that provided number plus or minus 5 males per 100,000. ... I speculate 18 civilian and 20 military appears to be somewhat of an average.

Are suicide rates high or too high. I have two opposing ideas about this; is it unreasonable to think that 20 soldiers might commit suicide minding the fact that they experience human atrocities and personal loss barely comprehensible to you and I ... and this is compared to what, 18 civilians that have a bad hair day or lose their job because they can’t get to work on time? Is it possible that the armed services do provide an excellent service commensurate with the task at hand? On the other hand, maybe soldiers are supposed to be conditioned by mere virture of being soldiers and this combined with excellent human services means they should out perform the civilian population easily? I submit that 20 soldier suicides per 100,000 might be a pretty good number all things considered.

Do we have media pundits using the suicide event to promote their political agenda? The upside if this is true, public pressure will come to bear and the Armed Services will be pressed to improve its support, this isn’t a bad thing. What rubs me the wrong way is the idea that the agenda behind the effort is not focused on helping soldiers, its aimed at ridiculing war and diminishing war with the hope to promote progressive liberal ideologies. I don’t believe that just wars benefit from being undermined by progressive liberalism.

Lets help the soldiers for their own sake and not let a political agenda taint the process.

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