U.S. Military Suicides and Palestinian Hunger Strikes

Enduring freedom

There is some awareness in the United States that suicides among American military personnel are at the highest level since the years of the Vietnam War. It is no wonder. The sense of guilt and alienation associated with taking part in the Afghanistan War, especially multiple postings to a menacing war zone for a combat mission that is increasingly hard to justify and almost impossible to carry out successfully, seems sufficient to explain such a disturbing phenomenon.

By Richard Falk

These tragic losses of life, now outnumbering battlefield deaths, about one per day since the start of 2012, are not hidden from the American public but nor do they provoke an appropriate sense of concern, of better, outrage. This contrasts with the Vietnam years, especially toward the end of the war, when many families with children at risk in a war that had lost its way and was being lost took to the streets, pressured their Congressional representatives, spoke at anti-war rallies, and supported their sons unwillingness to take part.

Now there is a stony silence in American society, which seems to be a confirmation that we now are ‘citizens’ of or ‘patriots’ in an authoritarian democracy, or more urbanely, ‘subjects’ of a constitutional democracy. We are less than ever cognizant of the Jeffersonian imperative: the health of this democracy depends on the conscience and vigilance of its citizens. ...

U.S. Suicide prevention represents departure from just two years ago

Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention
(HP/RR/SP) (U.S. Army 2010)

In 2010, an idiotic report issued by the U.S. Army entitled, Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention (HP/RR/SP), reprimands servicemembers and veterans' committing suicide as having engaged in "high risk" activity prompted by an "erosion of adherence to existing Army policies and standards" in a "key finding."

Reading the 2010 report, one wondered then: Can the brass of the U.S. Army and the authors of the report really be this dumb? Ahhh, yeah.

In two years, somebody got to these idiots.

By Michael Leon

In reaction the 2010 report, veterans' advocate, Steve Robinson—who has challenged the President and the Defense establishment face-to-face on their shameful neglect of the health problems, especially mental-health issues, faced by returning Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans—said in August 2010:

What does [Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter] Chiarelli not understand about combat? Soldiers engage in high-risk behavior on deployment. The [2010] report is written in such a way to blame the soldier, and not the leadership of the military for its part in not inculcating people so that they have resiliency and understand how to deal with stress; because there are not any real programs that train the force as a whole. Also, the leadership treats this problem as a lack of moral character, and a lack of intestinal fortitude, when it is really a medical issue. ... 'I had this conversation with a guy in the [Bush] White House, the liaison to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This was during the Bush Administration. He said, if we were to keep every promise that we made to the veterans, it would bankrupt us as a nation.'

News of another spike in suicide rates this week brings a completely different analysis and reaction from the DoD as the Pentagon appears to be focusing on halting military suicides by targeting stigmatization.

In a memo to military commanders in May, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that “suicide prevention is a leadership responsibility,” and added, “Commanders and supervisors cannot tolerate any actions that belittle, haze, humiliate or ostracize any individual, especially those who require or are responsibly seeking professional services.” (NYT)

"[L]eaders throughout the chain of command must actively promote a constructive command climate that fosters cohesion and encourages individuals to reach out for help when needed," wrote Panetta. "The secretary wants to make it very clear to everybody in uniform and their families that there’s nothing stronger you can do for yourself and your family than to come forward and seek some help and seek the counseling that you need. And you’ll get it from the department." (Pellerin. DoD)

That's an improvement.

Next on the to-do list: Acknowledge that war is pretty fucking dumb.

Lawsuit Claims VA Negligent in Iraq War Veteran Suicide

Some Vietnam War guy; makes me laugh and advocate for veterans

By Kristin M. Hall

The widow of an Iraq war veteran from Tennessee claims in a lawsuit that the Veterans Affairs was negligent in failing to diagnose and treat his post-traumatic stress disorder before he committed suicide in 2008.

The suit filed Tuesday in federal court in Greeneville says staff at the VA hospital in Mountain Home did not adequately treat Scott Walter Eiswert, of Greeneville, before his suicide at the age of 31. Eiswert, who served with the Tennessee National Guard, served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005.

The family's lawsuit is the latest criticism of the VA's response to preventing suicide among veterans and dealing with a massive backlog of benefits claims. Similar lawsuits have been filed against the VA by families of veterans who have committed suicide after seeking help at VA facilities.

A political debate outside the sphere of the popular news media, and restricted among rightwing thinktanks and their allies [included media allies such as Associated Press writer Allen Breed] contending veterans [especially Vietnam War veterans] ought to leave their war experiences behind, against veterans' advocates who back disability benefits for all veterans over the course of their lives, continues on the questions of whether PTSD and other ailments are life-long and the question of what we as a country owe to our some 26-million veterans.

One Vietnam War Army combat veteran, Bob Walsh, an attorney battling the VA for his fellow veterans and a critic of the VA response to preventing suicide, told me:

What about the claims of all the honest veterans that languish in the system for decades until they die. [Veterans] ... freeze to death on the streets or blow their brains out in the garage. The veterans' benefits claims system is a national tragedy ... .

For an opposing view, as proposed most prominantly by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and implemented in part by the Bush-Cheney administration, see Blaming the Veteran. If you surf to Dr. Sally Satel's work at AEI, just read the summary if I may advise, because Satel may make you want to fucking puke.

Facing Ninth Deployment, Army Ranger Kills Himself: 'No Way' God Forgives Him for What He'd Done, He Told Wife

Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann

The U.S. Army in a report last year, shockingly indifferent to veterans and servicemen and women even by the low standards of the U.S. military, reads: It's not war; the "risky behavior" of our troops at home drives them to suicide. Another troop goes down after his eighth deployment, and his wife reveals why. Must be all that "risky behavior" of Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's, you bureaucratic imbeciles.

By Susie Madrak

The people who should be worried about going to hell are the bastards who sent these soldiers over there for no good reason, and then refuse to pay for the help they need when they come back:

JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, Wash. - A soldier's widow says his fellow Army Rangers wouldn't do anything to help him before he took his own life - after eight deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army found Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann's body at a training area of Joint Base Lewis McChord a few weeks ago.



A spokesman for the base tells KOMO News that the nature of the death is still undetermined. But Staff Sgt. Hagemann's widow says her husband took his own life - and it didn't need to happen.

"It was just horrible. And he would just cry," says Ashley Hagemann.

Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he'd seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"And there's no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell," says Ashley. "He couldn't live with that any more."

More U.S. soldiers and veterans have died from suicide than from combat wounds over the past two years.

And as a special way of thanking those who served, Texas Republicans want to make it harder for young, homeless and traumatized veterans to vote.

Number of Army Suicides Already Surpasses 2009 Total

By Chaplain Kathie

This is what we knew after Vietnam with most being deployed once.

This was published by the DAV stating clearly we already had 500,000 in Readjustment Problems Among Vietnam Veterans, The Etiology of Combat-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorders by Jim Goodwin, Psy.D. It hangs on the wall of my office, old and worn out, to remind me everyday of how much of what we already knew has been ignored. With one deployment we had huge numbers of veterans with PTSD, over 300,000 ended up homeless and two studies put the numbers of suicides between 150,000 and 200,000, topped off with the latest studies putting the figure of veterans committing suicide at a rate of 18 a day.
Tracking the numbers it becomes clear that after all these years, they have no clue what they are doing. The Army published a report stating clearly the redeployment of troops increased the risk of PTSD by 50%, yet they continued to do it without addressing what this was doing to the soldiers.

Medications are more of an issue than we think about because of several reasons. The first is short-term memory loss leaving many deployed with medications they forgot they already took. Medications that are just not strong enough while they are in Iraq or Afghanistan leaving them playing their own doctor and taking more than they should because they can't just decide to go see a doctor with bombs blowing up and bullets coming at them. Then the issue of most of these medications coming with the warning about not using any kind of equipment while taking them along with the need to be monitored by a doctor.

PTSD is hard enough to survive but when the DOD decided they would redeploy them no matter what, it added to all they have to go through. The last thing they needed was for all of the studies we had going back 40 years to be ignored and nothing learned.

Number of Army Suicides Already Surpasses 2009 Total

By Sara Sorcher
Friday, November 19, 2010 6:30 p.m.

Despite a rapidly expanding effort to improve the mental well-being of its soldiers, new Army data suggest that the service’s suicide epidemic shows little sign of improvement, with more troops taking their own lives so far this year than ever before.

The data released by the Pentagon on Friday indicate that there were 25 potential suicides for both active-duty and reserve service members. Two by active-duty troops were confirmed. In a separate document from the Army, five suicides of reservists have been confirmed. The rest are all under investigation.

As of today’s numbers, at least 172 soldiers committed suicide this year—surpassing last year’s total of 162 for all of 2009.
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for soldiers, trailing only combat deaths and accidental deaths from drug overdoses and drunken driving, the Army’s Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said in the foreword to a report on military suicide issued in July. Chiarelli, a four-star general, has made a personal commitment to suicide prevention.

The military has invested tens of millions of dollars in a crash effort to combat the ever-increasing suicide rate, hiring more mental-health professionals, installing video-teleconferencing centers to allow soldiers on remote bases in Afghanistan to communicate with stateside mental-health professionals, and distributing laminated cards for soldiers to better recognize signs of depression or suicidal thoughts.

With that in mind, here's a visit back to the medication issue that will blow your mind.

Prescription drugs were involved in almost one-third of the service’s active-duty suicides, the Army’s suicide-prevention task force said in its July report.

National Journal reported in October that the number of psychiatric-medication prescriptions filled for customers ages 18 to 34—the age range of most active-duty troops and their spouses—soared by 85 percent between 2003 and 2009, according to the military’s health insurance system.
Number of Army Suicides Surpasses 2009

Say It, General Chiarelli: War Is a 'High-risk', Deadly, Stupid Enterprise

- The politicians, generals (if there be a difference), and assorted hacks and kiss-asses appearing on the news shows to discuss the epidemic of suicide deflect, obfuscate, divert, and say anything but the truth: War will predictably lead to death and dismemberment and suicide is as predictable as bad weather. 'You don't want high rates of suicide, don't have war.' The day we hear this from a general or DoD hack is the day Satan gets mighty cold. -

Consider Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli (pictured at right) explaining military and veteran suicide on ABC News This Week Sunday morning.

Gen. Chiarelli blathers on in the predictable Army lexicon of blaming "high-risk" behavior for troop suicide as we wait for ABC News anchor Christiane Amanpour to ask the good general: 'Hey, isn't war a high-risk behavior, something we should avoid unless we absolutely have to wage it, and then mobilize the country behind it, committing full resources to the predictable trauma?'

One doubts that Chiarelli and other paid liars will spew his crap about high-risk behavior directly to the family and friends of Iraq war veteran Kortney 'Kort' Jensen who committed suicide in late July. Or any other suicide victim; pick a week, and you'll find plenty. "Kort was never the same person after he came home,” said father-in-law, Grant Becherini. “It was a different Kort that came back. The real Kort died over there.” Not according to the Army.

The Army knows. After all, they wrote a whole report finding “high risk behavior” of troops at home and “erosion of adherence to existing Army policies and standards” are to blame.

Wow, high-risk behavior and those engaging in it are to blame. That's just what Gen. Chiarelli said today.

For background on this crap, see Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of PTSD (Ford, Huber, and Meagher).

U.S. Army Clears War of Wrongdoing

- U.S. Army: It's not war; the "risky behavior" of our troops at home drives them to suicide.

Did you know that a solider committing suicide with a pistol has just engaged in the high-risk behavior of aiming the barrel at his head and squeezing the trigger, in blatant violation of existing Army policies and standards? -

The Army calls their report released yesterday: The Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention (HP/RR/SP) Report, the "result of a focused 15-month effort to better understand the increasing rate of suicides in the force."

One wonders what exactly the Army-sanctioned authors do understand in this 9.97 MB of wasted computer space.

Nancy A. Youssef at McClatchy Newspapers has a piece out entitled "Army suicides: Poor leadership, not repeat deployments blamed."

Reports Youssef:

The new Army report has found that inattention to rising rates of drug abuse and criminal activity among soldiers and not repeat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is responsible for the record-high levels of suicide among troops. The 350-page report, which was released Thursday, said that military commanders are so focused on preparing their troops for war that they've allowed troops to engage in risky behavior at home that may lead to suicide.

Those servicemen and women and their reckless behavior! That's why the high suicide rate.

Nothing in the report's finding about war, the risky nature of war, repeated deployments, the stupidity of making war at any price. It's the troops' fault, the Marines' fault, and a lack of leadership in keeping an eye of those reckless men and women who just need a firmer hand and tighter regulations.

"The dedicated effort behind this report sends a clear message to our force that we take the resiliency of our soldiers and families very seriously,” said Secretary of the Army John McHugh. “This effort is part of our culture to look closely at ourselves, and to make continuous improvements in our capability – but most importantly, to reduce the number of soldiers we lose to suicide."

Sorry to put you through McHugh, but you get the message they're sending: Covering War's ass, either that or: We're incredibly stupid..

The Army's key findings:

gaps in the current HP/RR/SP policies, processes and programs necessary to mitigate high risk behaviors;

an erosion of adherence to existing Army policies and standards;

an increase in indicators of high risk behavior including illicit drug use, other crimes and suicide attempts;

Of course, targeting veterans and those actively serving is nothing new. See Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of PTSD (Ford, Huber, and Meagher),a truly classic piece of work published in February 2006.

But one has to look to fiction to describe the utter vacuity and obtuse mindlessness of the U.S. Army brass in addressing the epidemic suicide rate.

I refer you to that paragon of leadership, resiliency and regulations against the reckless, one Major Frank Burns (also known as Ferret Face played expertly by Larry Linville) from the M*A*S*H* television series.

"Well, I'm glad the Army has that cleared up," said Frank to his disbelieving unit who were fed-up with the Army brass.