US soldier suicide rate in Iraq doubles

[Judi Lynn]

US soldier suicide rate in Iraq doubles
Wednesday Dec 20 10:11 AEDT

Suicides among US soldiers in Iraq doubled last year over the previous year to return to a level seen in 2003, US Army medical experts say.

Twenty-two US soldiers in Iraq took their own lives in 2005, a rate of 19.9 per 100,000 soldiers.

In 2004, the rate was 10.5 per 100,000 and in 2003, the year of the US-led invasion of Iraq, the figure was 18.8 per 100,000.

The figures cover US Army soldiers only. They do not include members of other US military services in Iraq such as the Marine Corps.
(snip/...)

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=173170

[MADem]

1. Ouch. That's high. I'd hate to be the schmuck having to 'splain those statistics to General

Assholes who don't want to hear the 'why' but just want to make the 'number' better.

[Judi Lynn]

2. From Stars and Stripes: Army suicide rates in Iraq and Kuwait rose in 2005

Army suicide rates in Iraq and Kuwait rose in 2005

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, December 21, 2006

~snip~
Kiley said he has no evidence linking suicides with multiple deployments or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, saying most suicides are impulsive decisions.

“In some cases we’ve had young soldiers who will get bad relationship news and walk right into Porta-Potty and end their lives, and no one has an opportunity to intervene,” he said.

Kiley said he is standing up a suicide prevention cell to tackle the problem.

“The cell I am standing up in MEDCOM is to get to MEDCOM, which is my command, more fully engaged with the G-1 to sort these issues out to see if there is something we’re missing; to see if there is some new strategies, either in training, leader training, further reduction in stigma in seeking health care, and frankly, I’m not really ready to discuss it because my staff hasn’t come to me with some new ideas and some ideas initiatives in that regard,” he said.
(snip/)

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42298

[stillcool]

3. ah jayzus...

no evidence....what a sick effing world. I feel like it's crashing in on me here...can't even imagine what life is like there, and hope I never can.

[gratuitous]

7. Yeah - no evidence

When you look at any one particular case, you can't draw any general conclusions or spot any trends. Therefore, you don't have any evidence. It's the same technique tobacco companies used for years to deny any link between smoking and lung cancer. By carefully picking and choosing among all the lung cancer sufferers, you can find this one here who worked in a hazardous profession that exposed him to toxic fumes on a regular basis. And that one there, who has a family history of getting cancer. See? At least from those two cases, you can't draw any generalized conclusions.

Same with the soldiers. This guy just got a "Dear John" letter. That one there had a family history of depression. Who knows what pushed any one of those guys over the edge to commit suicide? At least based on those two carefully selected guys, there's . . . "no evidence" that it's always or even predominantly the multiple tours, the high stress, or anything else all those bleeding heart whiners want to blame this on.

Governmental obfuscation and double-talk at its finest. Meanwhile, a lot of guys with real problems keep killing themselves and endangering their buddies.

[Supersedeas]

6. nothing to see here: feed them more Rosie and Trump infortainment

[Barrett808]

4. k & r

[blues90]

5. I can't even imagine the mental stress over in Iraq

I don't know how I would be able to take the conditions over there . During Vietnam I was 19 in 1968 and I worried about being drafted , I knew I could not kill and there were the things called the buddy system if you joined . Of course the main difference was the draft .

I went over and over in my mind what it must be like there and what the chances were of being blown up or worse drastically injured .

All I can inagine now is the waiting and not knowing what each minute will bring and I imagine many troops in Iraq have guilt over the killing since many never knew they would end up on the battle field . The agony and stress and mental pain is enough to want to end it for some . I am surprised the rate of suicide is not much higher .