This article is based on a story in the Army Times. I tried to post the story from the Army Times, but there is a copyright issue and stories from that source cannot be posted on FR.
Source: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/military_veterans_suicide_042210w/
My father, a wounded WWII vet, drank himself to death over many years. Times haven’t changed, perhaps the instrument of death has...
I am sorry for any veteran in trouble but does anyone know how this number compares to the population as a whole adjusting for the specifics of age and gender? That’s the necessary element of this story.
Well, OK, how many other people commit suicide each day. What’s the point in counting veterans?
No stats comparing non military, same age, education groups against civilians.
Further, social numbers like these types are very poor quality.
Badly written and not illuminating article.
I call BS on this! Something doesn’t seem right at all about this story. It implies because of these wars people are committing the act of suicide and that’s crap!
They didn’t commit suicide. The horrors of war killed them. It gets in your mind and doesn’t leave.
Then you ask everyone you know who has been to the Middle East since 2001 how many fellow vets have attempted suicide. When you discover the likely answer of zero, then you start questioning more.
If someone locates a vet somewhere in the hinterland who has attempted or succeeded at suicide, you ask what else may have led to it.
My gut tells me this is a report written by someone with way, way, way too little real work to do.
the Army must be doing something right, because the rate of suicide is actually lower–yes, I said lower–than that of a comparable civilian population.Yes, you heard me right, I said the suicide rate is lower in the Army than in a similar civilian population.
I know the headlines suggest otherwise, but that is because they are comparing the suicide rate in the US Army (17 per 100 000 population), as compared to the suicide rate of all civilians of all age groups (rate 11.5 per 100 000 population).
The dirty little secret is that men succeed in suicide a lot more than women, so by comparing apples (young men) to organges (adding women to the statistics) you can make the Army look bad.
Here is a pdf file of 2005 suicide statistics.
Here are a few details that are mentioned by the reports, but in a way that you might overlook them, especially if you are like most people and only read the top of the story.
One, the suicide rate in the Army is 17, but in young civilian men is 20.5.
Two:Read paragraph 2 of the Washington Post story I quoted. The article admits that two thirds of the suicides have not served in Iraq or Afghanistan, meaning that these suicides were not related to the war.
http://www.bloggernews.net/19471
Then you say, "Keep thinking. That's what you're good at."
My guess is there is no such real report because no one in any real veterans support organization would release something this silly.
18 daily is 6570 per year.
Among all of the reasons that other Freepers have pointed out to show that this study is meaningless, there is the added aspect of the suicide rate of war veterans vs. peacetime military personnel, because, guess what, military personnel who never go to war also kill themselves on occasion, as do civilians. So, even if we were to accept that there was a particular rate of suicide among veterans, it would not necessarily have a bearing on the wars, or conduct of wars. For example, the military has always had a relatively high rate of suicide attempts during holidays even in peacetime - young kids in a somewhat stressful job away from home, often for the first time.
Whatever the math, even one of these heroes is one too many...
Their math is awful.
950 attempts per month
7% actually kill them selves
This means 66.5 suicides per month, or 2 per day.
I am really not sure how they got 18 per day.
Second major mistake just as wrong. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. They are there to fight and win a war. No second guessing.
Third is the idiotic idea that troops are also Peace Corp Workers. Any Commanding Officer ordering or allowing his troops to rebuild, paint, or help a country in a war zone should face immediate Court Martial and removal from service. Any Civilian official elected or appointing ordering such should be fired, impeached, and/or removed by appropriate means.
A United States Serviceman to do the job in war must maintain a healthy dosage of detachment from their task in the same Paramedics, Firemen, and policemen, must do so they can do their job. Having to shell or raid a home one night due to it being a suspected or confirmed next for snipers then having them help rebuild the next day is wrong.
Vets in every war this nation has been in have had to do things we do not see here in the United States. A soldiers raid on a suspected hideout and killing all inside is as right as a carpet bombing of an entire area. Each is done so to achieve a military objective.
When all vets up through WW2 came home they were welcomed hero's. As Marxism became more prevalent after WW2 the returning Vets found themselves being attacked and scorned for doing a job which the description and requirements are written in The Holy Bible.
Much of the cause and affect of returning servicemen come from nothing more than very bad policy on the part of our Presidents and Congress in both parties.
I hear the term or popular catch phrase SUPPORT THE TROOPS. That includes most of all not second guessing them, Not Judging Them, Not Over extending them, and not Over Deploying them into levels of combat way beyond that of even WW2. It also means giving them all the necessary manpower and equipment needed so we are seen as a military power not to be messed with. meaning Reagan Doctrine is needed for our National Defense.
Our returning troops need at least the rest of their enlistment for their minds to heal from one such deployment. This has not been done since Post Vietnam and it is creating major issues. A serviceman should not feel guilty for leaving the service or going home after being wounded as if he let his fellow troops down, Congress needs to get off it's A Double S's and do it's job getting our troops proper rotations.