Just shut up about everything.

That'll solve the problem.

Riddle me this: if the primary "cause" of the majority of these military suicides is a "failed relationship with a woman," then does that mean that Army and Marine men have been entering into more relationships since 2001, and more relationships than Navy and Air Force men? I doubt this is the case.

While a failed romantic relationship might be the catalyst for an already emotionally disturbed person, these soldiers got to this mental state **because they are fighting a war.** This isn't just any war, either. This war has dragged on for seven years. This war is taking place in what is mostly considered to be an ugly, inhospitable place (according to those who've been there) with sometimes less-than-welcoming locals. Most of the American public is against the war. It's not really clear, even to some of the people who've been over there, that the war is doing much good.

This is a link to a video from an Army regiment that returned in December after 14 months in Iraq:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=53660719

It's a mostly upbeat video, but I couldn't watch it without crying.

People at home disappoint you. Though savvy soldiers can find ways to avoid returning to the battlefield. "Umm, why are you studying Korean?" "My wife couldn't take another tour in Iraq." Who can blame her?

These dead people are data. These generals and admirals are close to retirement with good pay and full benefits. These senators are important personages. We are overburdened citizens with other things to concern us.

Nothing will come of this.

The reason is readily available and can be verified against every question anyone can ask, as has long been the case.

The solution can be described, promptly manifested, and verified against every question anyone can ask, as has long been the case.

The people who learned the knowledge are laughing themselves to tears because the knowledge has long been offered, while institution leaders, including the institution of news journalists, are too busy talking to people who learned the knowledge of how to acquire impressive titles and credentials, instead of the separate knowledge of how to resolve human-caused contradictions.

There are only 24 hours per day. The time required to learn knowledge "A" detracts from the time required to learn knowledge "B". And the illusion of titles, including "military psychologist", or any title, precludes inquiry for knowledge where knowledge exists instead of where titles of knowledge exist.

No one in the military or government will see this message. If they did, like the journalists, they cannot understand it because the words hold their meanings, unlike the words of institutionally trained minds, including journalists who perceive that "Soldier suicides SKYROCKET".

If you are not laughing at the humans, you are missing their only show.

May you learn the most knowledge of the most concepts, most efficiently.

DougBuchanan.com

The thing that blows my mind about EVERY war, EVERY arm clonfict, it's how they're always fought in the poor areas of a country by the poor themselves.

I'm amazed at how the savagery of wars is always visited upon the poor and then the middle and upper classes are left to discuss about it, it's "moralities", the "what ifs" (What if "they" use their WMDs on us before we have a chance to react...blah, blah, blah, as if these weapons were built and controlled by the poor), the "strategic" importance of this or that parcel of land, the need to "send a message", and all that bullshit.

And in the end it's the poor that gets the most devastataing attacks and number of deaths.

Here in the US that translates into most of the armed forces volunteers coming from the rural areas, and now they're committing suicide by the ton, and the most the elite in the US can do for them is hold a "hearing", as if they care to listen in the first place.

The human mind is way too abstract for our own good.

Mark Benjamin does a nice analysis of the problem. A conventional news report would have run under a headline like "Pentagon: Suicides Not Related to Combat Stress" and left it at that.

Don't the armed services all have senior-level NCOs who are supposed to be able to speak about the problems faced by the enlisted ranks? Or is that just a theory which is never put into practice?

Here's what has yet to be addressed:

The US tortures, and these soldiers have been charged with committing murder and quite possibly torture and abuse as a part of their jobs. It's well-known that committing acts of intentional harm, even as directed and expected by one's job, causes mental anguish.

Repeated and lengthy deployments disrupt family relationships, put the soldier at high risk of losing his or her civilian job, home and financial stability.

Admitting signs of mental illness is received with contempt, ridicule and often retaliation by superiors, and thousands of service men and women were given punitive general discharges for so doing (this disqualified them from receiving medical benefits through the VA. Thank you for your service, indeed.

The military always (with the exception of Rumsfeld abhorrent aberrations) rapidly discharged service members who required lengthy and intensive rehabilitation to receive that care in the VA or civilian healthcare systems. But now soldiers are refused medical discharges, even though the military healthcare services were never Congressionally charged or set up to provide intensive, long-term rehabilitation. And so, there are not enough acceptable quality inpatient psychiatric care units, inpatient rehabilitation units (for traumatic brain injury, complex fractures, blast trauma, burns, etc) nor the professional nurses to provide that care. All branches of the military are running at least 10% short of nurses, and nurses are fleeing the service faster and in higher numbers than any other officer. (Former acting Army Surgeon General Gale Pollock testimony)

And it's nurses that make the difference as to whether patients get better or suffer preventable morbidity and mortality. It was the total absence of registered nurses at Walter Reed that was at the crux of the abandoned soldier patients, and it's professional nursing that is at the root of the lack of professional care for soldiers who need, but who do not receive, inpatient psychiatric care and case management.

So I perceive two stigmas here: that of metal illness and that of admitting that professional nursing is a legitimate, independent healthcare profession worthy of respect, autonomy over its own practice and critical to the health and well-being of patients.

Instead of continued finger-pointing, what about reaching out to all returned service members and their families? The best treatment for them is socialization - take someone for a meal and conversation, bring them with you to hit a bucket of balls or watch batting practice, include them in business networking, refer them for a job. Volunteer and bring your own skills and expertise to bear on an underfunded and under resourced effort to support struggling service members. They need real life sustained support,not just a meet and greet parade when they return, never to be remembered again.

When you have room to point your finger, you're too far away from the solution to the problem.