http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/09/army.suicides/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The rate of suicides among-active duty soldiers is on pace to surpass both last year's numbers and the rate of suicide in the general U.S. population for the first time since the Vietnam war, according to U.S. Army officials.
Officials attribute the rise in suicides to anxiety and stress from increased operations and more deployments.

Officials attribute the rise in suicides to anxiety and stress from increased operations and more deployments.

As of August, 62 Army soldiers have committed suicide, and 31 cases of possible suicide remain under investigation, according to Army statistics. Last year, the Army recorded 115 suicides among its ranks, which was also higher than the previous year.

Army officials said that if the trend continues this year, it will pass the nation's suicide rate of 19.5 people per 100,000, a 2005 figure considered the most recent by the government.

The rise can be attributed to the increased pace of combat operations, the number of deployments and financial and family troubles connected with deployments, Army officials said.

"Army leaders are fully aware that repeated deployments have led to increased distress and anxiety for both soldiers and their families," Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said. "This stress on the force is validated by recent studies of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression."

The statistics were released Tuesday at a news conference announcing the completion of a study by mental health experts who the Veterans Administration asked to review its suicide prevention work and track numbers.

On Tuesday, the VA also announced findings from a study showing that suicides hit an all-time high in 2006 among younger U.S. military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The numbers show record levels for men, but the statistics are lower for women.

According to the VA, about 46 of 100,000 males between the ages of 18 and 29 utilizing VA services committed suicide in 2006, compared with about 27 the year before.

For female veterans in the same age group, about three in 100,000 killed themselves in 2006, compared with about eight per 100,000 in 2005.

The suicide rate for males is also higher than for the general United States population in 2005. The number for the general population is about 20 people per 100,000, according to the VA numbers. Numbers were not available for the 2006 general male population suicides.

Veterans Secretary James Peake said the department would try to reduce the number of suicides by using recommendations by the mental health expert panel.

"The report of this blue-ribbon panel, and other efforts under way, will ensure VA mobilizes its full resources to care for our most vulnerable veterans," Peake said in a statement.

Among veterans who left the military in 2001, 141 killed themselves between 2002 and 2005, according to VA statistics in the report. In 2006, 113 more veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars committed suicide.

The Veterans Administration has said the rise in suicides can be directly connected to the increase in veterans coming from both wars since 2001.

Representatives from the Department of Defense, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health made the following recommendations:

• Design a study that will identify suicide risk among veterans of different conflicts, ages, genders, military branches and other factors.

• Improve the VA's screening for suicide among veterans with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Foster a better understanding of suitable medications for depression, PTSD and suicidal behavior.

We need to continue to support our troops. Coming home would be a slap in the face of the sacrifice they've made for our freedom. They don't want to come home. Troops like Mccain

9/10/2008 12:49:18 AM

This is pretty tragic, and I'm a little offended you chose to cheapen this issue by brining mccain/obama in to this.

9/10/2008 12:51:00 AM

that's what happens when you say you killed "only" 7 civilians in an air raid, but apparently massacred 90, including 60 children.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/08/afghan.civilians
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7603969.stm

note: both links contain video of dead bodies

9/10/2008 1:42:27 AM

Support our Troops:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.117:

9/10/2008 2:09:44 AM

Well, it might tend to get to you after fighting an immoral and illegal war, knowing full well that your oath to protect and defend the constitution required disobeying unlawful orders...but deciding to kill anyway.

I support the troops that support the Constitution, and refuse to deploy without a declaration of war from Congress. Otherwise, I really don't have sympathy for what they go through.

9/10/2008 9:45:16 AM

"Iraq Resolution" and "Iraq War Resolution" are popular names for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002,[1] a joint resolution (i.e. a law) passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No: 107-243, authorizing the Iraq War.

Sounds to me like a declaration of war.

9/10/2008 9:49:54 AM

No branch of our federal government can delegate authority the Constitution vests in it to another branch.

If Congress, one random day, decided "Hey, we're lazy and don't feel like doing anything. We will pass a resolution giving the President all legislative authority."

It can't do that, and the resolution would be unlawful. Why? Because legislative power is exclusively given to Congress, and it cannot be delegated by a mere resolution - it would require a Constitutional amendment to delegate that authority to the President.

The same goes for declarations of war. That power is vested only in Congress.

"We'll go along with whatever the President wants to do" is not a statement Congress has the authority to make. It is not a declaration of war.

Multiple Congressman proposed an actual declaration of war - and it was shot down in favor of a resolution granting the President freedom to do whatever he thought was best.

9/10/2008 9:54:21 AM

How did you make bullet points?

9/10/2008 9:54:24 AM

Quote :

"I support the troops that support the Constitution, and refuse to deploy without a declaration of war from Congress. Otherwise, I really don't have sympathy for what they go through."

stupid

9/10/2008 9:54:46 AM

While I think deployment stress is part of it, it's interesting that we have seen a rise in suicide rates among younger solders as well. I wonder if this is any link to the quality of soldier now recruited, since Basic Training use to be a vetting process to eliminate any soldiers who couldn't handle it, now it is merely a rubber stamp. Back in the 80's and 90's soldiers were much more likely to be discharged if they exhibited psychological problems that could indicate problems in the future. Now however we have soldiers who try to commit suicide, sometimes more than once, during BCS and AIT and still getting sent to units that are then deployed.

I think there are a myriad of reasons why the suicide rate has increased, but to say it has anything to do with Iraq/Afghanistan being "immoral" or "unjust" is both laughable and offensive at the same time.

9/10/2008 10:41:43 AM

I'm not asserting it's most, but it is a partial cause for many. Most of them, it's probably family stress, general depression from the fact that life sucks on deployment, etc.

But, there are a TON of combat veterans who feel, at best, morally ambiguous about the killing they did, and it can be a source of great internal torment.

9/10/2008 10:44:57 AM

Quote :

"The rate of suicides among-active duty soldiers is on pace to surpass both last year's numbers and the rate of suicide in the general U.S. population"

This sentence implies to me that the rate of suicide among active duty soldiers is still less than that of the general U.S. population. If no longer, then it is still comparable to that of the general U.S. population.

As such, what is the story here? Sometimes people get depressed and kill themselves, why should soldiers be immune from this?

9/10/2008 10:57:21 AM

Quote :

"But, there are a TON of combat veterans who feel, at best, morally ambiguous about the killing they did, and it can be a source of great internal torment."

Yeah, I'm sure you know a ton of combat veterans.

9/10/2008 11:07:30 AM

Quote :

"How did you make bullet points?"

omg, click edit post

9/10/2008 11:16:00 AM

Actually, yes, I do. Most of my family has combat experience, and I was USMC enlisted but not in combat.

9/10/2008 11:20:58 AM

admit it. you like that troops are committing suicide.

9/10/2008 10:26:06 PM

As politically fun as this would be to spin this into a string of conflicted souls being crushed under the weight of their own moral ambiguity, it is more likely the disintegration of families that is pushing this suicide rate up.

Quote :

"that's what happens when you say you killed "only" 7 civilians in an air raid, but apparently massacred 90, including 60 children."

Probably not. Pilots have some of the lowest PTSD rates out there. Either way the definition of "civilian" is vague at best in the current operational environment and I'm not sure why the Afghani side of the story should be immediately more believable than the American side. Truth be told, AQI, the Taliban, and the rest of the radical fundamentalist movement is far more savvy at manipulating the media than the US is.

Quote :

"Sounds to me like a declaration of war."

Its not. We haven't had the political, much less moral, conviction to declare war on anyone since World War II. Declaring war might imply that Americans would have to make sacrifices and the average American has seemed rather unwilling to do so on a number of levels since the 60s. Politicians aren't willing to risk that, its easier to spin images of "shock and awe" while encouraging consumption to the point of negative savings than it is to tell the American people that if they want change, they're going to have to be part of it (and not even Obama is offering that kind).

9/11/2008 5:52:52 PM