1. More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat

For the second year in a row, the year ending 2010, more US soldiers killed themselves (468) than died in combat, reported Cord Jefferson on January 27, 2011. Excluding accidents and illness, 462 soldiers died in combat, while 468 committed suicide. Veterans who, after serving, suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are also at high risk. The study showed that 47 percent of veterans with PTSD had thoughts of suicide before they found help. The internal anguish a soldier experiences after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can be far more severe than that experienced during live external combat.

More than two million troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Those who do return often suffer from physical, psychological, and cognitive trauma. More than 40 per 100,000 men from the ages of 20 to 24 take their lives each year. Some deaths, which are not counted in these statistics, are due to driving while under the influence of alcohol consumed due to depression. In 2008, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were 75 percent more likely to die in a car accident and 148 percent more likely to die in a motorcycle accident. By making the calculations of 40 per 100,000 per year, the numbers of veteran suicides reaches into the tens of thousands nationwide since the beginning of the 9/11 wars.

In 2009, there were 381 military personnel suicides, a number that also exceeded the number of combat deaths. While the military has acknowledged an increase in suicides for some years, the corporate media tends to downplay the seriousness of these deaths by pointing to improvements and blaming the victims themselves. USA Today reporter Gregg Zoroya wrote on July 29, 2010, "After nine years of war, the Army attracts recruits ready for combat but inclined toward risky personal behavior. It's a volatile mix that led to more deaths from suicide, drug overdoses and drinking and driving than from warfare, an Army review concludes." 1

Zoroya followed up half a year later: "The Marine Corps reported a decline in suicides from 52 in 2009 to 37 confirmed or suspected cases in 2010. Among active-duty Army soldiers, there were 156 potential suicides in 2010, down slightly from 162 in 2009." 2

In his Truthdig article "Death and After in Iraq," Chris Hedges quoted former mortuary unit marine Jess Goodell: "War is disgusting and horrific. ... It never leaves the people who were involved in it. The damage is far greater than the lists of casualties or cost in dollars. It permeates lifestyles. It infects cultures and people and worldviews. The war is never over for us. The fighting stops. The troops get called back. But the war goes on for those damaged by war."

Goodell also described how the Marines have exploited young people, "Every single Marine I know goes to Iraq to help," she said. "While I was there that is what I thought. That is why I volunteered. I thought I was going to help the Iraqis. I know better now. We did the dirty work. We were used by the government. The military knows that young, single men are dangerous. We breed it in Marines. We push the testosterone. We don't want them to be educated.... We cannot question anyone. We do what we are told."

In corporate media, coverage of suicide rates among the troops, a comprehensive analysis of the nature of the war and occupations itself, is absent, though there has been basic acknowledgment that "the Army and the Marine Corps, which have borne the heaviest burden in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been hit the hardest, reporting a record number of suicides in 2008. This year (2009), the toll is on pace to climb even higher. When combined, the figures paint a stark portrait of loss. More than 2,100 members of the armed forces have taken their own lives since 2001, nearly triple the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan and almost half of all us fatalities in Iraq." 3

Post-traumatic stress disorder is also widely covered in the corporate media with the focus on the soldiers themselves and not on the us government's position in these wars and occupations. Corporate media's framing of the impact on soldiers never questions the us policy of maintaining a military empire of occupations and wars worldwide.

A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current "insensitive" policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide. A letter signed and sent May 25 by eleven senators - ten Democrats and one Republican - urged the president to "take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence" to families oftroops who killed themselves. 4

In the January 2011 issue of American Psychologist, the American Psychology Association (APA) dedicated thirteen articles to detailing and celebrating a $117 million collaboration with the US Army, "Comprehensive Soldier Fitness" (CSF), marketed as resilience training to reduce, if not prevent, adverse psychological consequences to soldiers who endure combat. Because of the CSF emphasis on "positive psychology," advocates call it a holistic approach to warrior training.

Criticism arose shortly after the initiative was announced - including ethical questions about whether soldiers should be trained to become desensitized to traumatic events. Psychologist Bruce Levine loudly warned politicians, military brass, and the nation that if soldiers and veterans discover that they have been deceived about the meaningfulness and necessity of their mission, it is only human for them to become more prone to emotional turmoil, which can lead to destructive behaviors for themselves and others.

When asked during a National Public Radio interview whether CSF would be "the largest-ever experiment," Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, who oversees the program, responded, "Well, we're not describing it as an experiment. We're describing it as training." 5

"It is highly unusual for the effectiveness of such a huge and consequential intervention program not to be convincingly demonstrated first in carefully conducted, randomized, controlled trials - before being rolled out under less controlled conditions," wrote Roy Eidelson, Marc Pilisuk, and Stephen Soldz in Truthout.

1. Gregg Zoroya, "Army Suicides Linked to Risky Behavior, Lax Discipline," USA Today, July 29, 2010,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-07-29-army-suicides_N.htm.

2. Gregg Zoroya, "More Army Guard, Reserve Soldiers Committing Suicide," USA Today, January 20, 2011,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2011-01-20-suicides20_ST_N.htm.

3. "Military Suicides Increase as US Soldiers Struggle with Torment of War," Star-Ledger, November 22, 2009,
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/us_military_suicides_increase.html.

4. Adam Levine, "Obama Urge3d to Reverse Policy on No Condolence Letters for Suicides," CNN, May 26, 2011,
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-26/politics/president.suicides.letters_I_condolence-letters-suicide-rate-policy?_s=PM:POLITICS.

5. "Army to Train Soldiers in Emotional Resiliency," Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, September 10, 2009,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112717611.

Sources:

Chris Hedges, "Death and After in Iraq," Truthdig, March 21, 2011,
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_body_baggers-of/iraq_20110321.

Cord Jefferson, "More US Soldiers Killed Themselves Than Died in Combat in 2010," Good, January 27, 2011,
http://www.good.is/post/more-us-soldiers-killed-themselves-than-died-in-combat-in-2010/.

Student Researcher: Bay Ewald (San Francisco State University)
Faculty Evaluator: Kenn Burrows (San Francisco State University)