Soldier Suicide Rate in Iraq Jumps

Last week, it was soldiers blaming trauma from the war for crimes they committed here in the USA, after returing home. Now this article states that suicide rate among soldiers has risen, but it doesn't include the suicide rate of soldiers that commit suicide here at home. It makes me wonder, what will happen in a year or two from now. How many soldiers will be negatively affected by this war? How many more lives will destroyed at home when they return and can't assimilate back into regular life? Any thoughts on this?


www.miami.com...
A sudden increase in suicides among U.S. soldiers in Iraq last summer turned out to be a brief spike, but the overall suicide rate there last year was much higher than for the entire Army.

Those are among the conclusions of a mental health assessment team that met with soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait between August and October last year, according to officials familiar with the results.

The Army planned to publicly announce the team's findings and recommendations on Thursday.

There were at least 24 suicides among U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait last year, according to the Army's count. That number may increase because the circumstances of some other deaths are still in doubt.

That equates to a suicide rate of 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers, compared with a rate of 12.8 for the entire Army in 2003 and an average rate of 11.9 for the Army during the 1995-2002 period, according to officials familiar with the mental health study. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

The 24 suicides do not include soldiers who killed themselves after returning to the United States

The other story:
Soldier Charged in Killing Blame Trauma From Iraq

These will help with facilitating more discussion, hopefully:
Suicide - the GI's embedded enemy
At Least 17 U.S. Troops Commit Suicide Since April
U.S. soldiers in iraq are comitting suicide at unusually high rates
Army: Mentally Ill Sent to Iraq
Suicide deaths in Iraq





seekerof

Well, if they're going to kill themselves, couldnt' they bomb some soft targets at the same time?

Fury, I like your thinking lol...

Seriously tho, this is sad, but I think people who have normal life shouldn't engage their-self in the army.

I've thought about suicide my self a LOT of times, and I've always told my self, if life start sucking even more than usual and I think I'm real close to doing it, I'll join the army!

I'm going to hell, and I'll bring as much mother#ers I can with me.

thanks for the great links seekeroff.

maybe because I haven't lived thru a major war before, well with the exception of the Gulf War, and I wasn't paying attention then...(boys and school was on my mind) I find these stories to be very disturbing. I have gathered from others that this usually happens in almost all wars. I would expect that this since this is a known side effect of war, there would be more counseling, intervention, that type of thing available to our troops out there. I know we offer counseling when they return home...but what about there? Don't their commanders and fellow soldiers notice when something goes awry?

Some of those soldiers are gone for a long time from wives and family.. Maybe to many dear John letters from home?

Or maybe the inevitability of almost certain death?

Tis sad what our soldiers go through for alot of ungrateful people