Suicides Among Soldiers Who Served in Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

Suicides Among Soldiers Who Served in Iraq
Vietnam vet has advice for reporters covering this elusive story.

By Wayne Smith

(February 24, 2004) -- Any reporters researching the increasingly critical story of suicides among American troops who have served in Iraq are likely to suffer from a near-crippling bout of cognitive dissonance, a kind of temporal disconnect between the tragedy unfolding for some of our soldiers and the business-as-usual tempo of a nation largely unaware.

You may also find yourself inhabiting a very sad place where a young soldier strolls away from a telephone booth in Baghdad, pulls out a gun and fires a bullet into his own head; a world where, for one Iraq vet, a motel room in Tennessee becomes a place not for celebrating his safe homecoming but the perfect secret venue for swallowing drain-clearing chemicals.

For me, a Vietnam veteran and former post traumatic stress disorder counselor, research at the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation on soldier suicides is triggering something akin to déjà vu. We see tip-of-the-iceberg indicators that portend a post-Iraq psychiatric disaster for some returning soldiers, one that the country is ill-prepared to deal with and one that the Pentagon appears to be spinning like a top.

The army reports that 21 soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait have killed themselves since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom but this number will increase as suspicious non-combat deaths that have already occurred and might be suicides await classification by the army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID). We have learned from a Pentagon source that the CID may not rule on these deaths until after the operation is over. Even the number of 21 is well above the average Army rate.
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http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000442221

[diamond14]

1. sad...real sad...some may be suicide, but in reality, some is likely

fragging...it's no wonder that the military is trying very hard to stifle all the stories....just like Vietnam...the real stories did not come out until many many years later...especially the fragging, some of which may never be told....

[Fovea]

2. I wonder how big the leap is

between suicide soldier and suicide bomber?
We will find out when this rotation is home for good, I guess.

[Columbia]

3. A lot of us are home already...

[Qanisqineq]

5. husband comes home in a month

He sounds great on the phone, but I wonder just how great he is? Some things he says leave me to believe all is not well. We will be living in separate states (1000+ miles apart) for a few months so who knows what may happen... Scary thought.

[Fovea]

6. Do yourself a favor

if you feel like you need to talk, find someone to listen.
There is no shame in PTSD.
Welcome home, troop!

[Columbia]

7. No worries

There's actually a lot of counseling available. You are actually required to talk with a chaplain (no, he's not trying to convert you) before you come home too.

[Turbineguy]

4. I find the "regular" casualties

awfull enough. The suicides are another notch in Dubya's gun.