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WASHINGTON – Suicides among U.S. soldiers rose last year to the highest level in decades, the Army announced Thursday. At least 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008. But the final count is likely to be considerably higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated and could also turn out to be self-inflicted, the Army said.
Officials: Army suicides at 3-decade high - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_suicides - broken link)
Sad commentary...but who says these folks are reacting to their view of themselves as 'bad guys'? How do we know what goes on in the mind of a suicide victim..interview him? Who's to say maybe most of these people don't simply find themselves embroiled in a mindless war with no clear objective, no definition of when, or if, they'll ever 'win', nor who will DETERMINE that....and that this makes the constant ongoing everyday hatred, violence, bloodshed, and chaos simply unbearable?
I'm not convinced these guys are killing themselves because they think they're 'bad guys'.
What a stupid insulting statement. "wake up" and "realized you were the bad guys." Combat takes a heavy toll on soldiers and leads to some suicides, regardless of how good or bad their cause of fighting is.
My wife and I were stationed in Alaska for three years, and every year we had many army suicides, most of which were traced not to their roles in Iraq/Afghanistan but to being so far away from family and dealing with the darkness that comes from Alaska winters. These suicides are included in these numbers.
The assumption you all are taking is all of the soldiers that committed suicide did so due to being in a combat zone. And while some surely did take their lives due to what happened in the desert, many probably had more to do with traditional reasons for suicide (depression, relationship problems, drugs/alcohol, etc.)
As to soldiers thinking of themselves as bad guys, I don't see that happening. Our soldiers are volunteers, like myself, they willingly gave up many freedoms in order to serve their country. If I felt what I was doing was wrong, I would have never enlisted in the first place, and I would bet that a massive majority of those currently serving feel the same way.
I suspect many of these young people are jsut too fragile to deal with some of the horror they have been asked to inflict. We sit in our homes isolated from the ugliness. Bush kept us from seeing on the news the truth. It is an ugly war and was never about "righting a wrong" , it had nothing to do with the war on terror, nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.
We were duped into believing we were unsafe because a president and his people wanted us at war.
I would think the obvious question is to ask is who benefited?
Here are some I can see:
Dick Cheney got to exercise his Haliburton stock options after their stock went from $18 to over $100 he needed it to be over $33 or so.
The defense contractors benefited... who owns them?
the banks seem to be a common holder of all of them.
hmm the same banks tha are getting massive bailouts
It seems like very wealthy people are the main winners.
I think if we checked all the connections we would see an ugly web and te real answer as to why the war. Now you have these poor soliders that are dealing with the terrors of war and their actions in some cases and having troubles dealing. Some maybe have issues with the seperation and who knows what else. it is hard to be rational and understand an irrational and selfish act.
I hope anyone considering suicide will find a better solution as this one is not good and solves nothing. Bless these poor soliders for what they have been asked to do. End their horrors now.
Textbook projection.
Admit it. You think that they are the bad guys.
Please support our troops.
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