Does War Drive Our Troops To Suicide?

[thir]

Does War Drive Our Troops To Suicide?

"On the other hand, there are also signs that the trauma of battle may be an important cause for the rising numbers: a 2009 report from the Army’s surgeon general showed that suicide among troops who served in Iraq between 2004 and 2007 rose from 13.5 to 24.8 per 100,000. The rate of suicide among active duty personnel is higher than that of civilians."


"The military is evaluating its suicide prevention programs. These include efforts to reduce the stigma that service personnel associate with mental illness and increase awareness of the warning signs and causes of suicide. But publicly available information on the military’s programs is vague.

The jury is out on whether active combat duty increases the risk of suicide. For the time being, we should keep it in mind in debates about bringing troops home from war zones and putting them on the ground in new battles."

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/does-war-drive-our-troops-to-suicide.html#ixzz2eLYEK02c

How much active battle can we ask of soldiers? Surely they must go nuts after a while. How often should they be sent out again? Should there be rules about this?

[Thorne]

I don't know about increasing risks of suicide, but I can't help but believe that being involved in combat, especially close combat, where you can see your opponent, has to have some kind of effects on people's minds. War drives soldiers to perform acts which are considered wrong in any civilized society, yet those acts must be performed to perpetuate that society. It's frightening to see how many of our military people come back with severe psychological and emotional scars.

What's even more frightening, though, is how little the government which sent them there is willing to do to help heal them. More must be done to insure that those who would send troops into combat, politicians and those running the industries, are first of all intimately familiar with what they are asking those soldiers to do, and secondly are forced to help heal those soldiers when they return.

[thir]

Also short term war fare is probably 'normal' in a sense, but too long exposure - being sent out again and again an again - can anyone handle that??

[thir]

(Leo9 forgetting to log out before using our computer :) )

The lesson most politicians learnt from Vietnam is that if you want to keep a war popular, keep the voters from seeing the real cost. The occasional funeral with bands and flags is fine. But proper support for PTSD, in serving troops and veterans, would not only cost a lot but focus attention on what's being done to "our heroes."

Ignore it, and the deaths and breakdowns can be safely buried among the general statistics.

[thir]

I some times wonder if the suicides are not only a matter of too much active service, but also that they might think that what the war is wrong in some cases? Or that they do something wrong? What do you do as a soldier, if you find yourself in such a situation?

[StrictMasterD]

Part of it may be because when they return there is NOT alot of help avaialbe for the Emotional Issues they deal with, as 1 person told me "We have the funding tokeep Wars going, but NO fundingto help those who served when they return" Our Goverment needs to focus MORE on taking care of those who served and arestill serving and focus much ess on other Countries, We can't be Police the world