News Suicide isn’t Just for Terrorist Bombers
posted by on August 16 at 8:21 AM
The AP got its hands on another grim report from the U.S. military:
Army soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new military report.The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest number since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.
The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 26 years, from last year’s high of 17.3 per 100,000 to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.
Last year, “Iraq was the most common deployment location for both (suicides) and attempts,” the report said.
Courtesy of Think Progress
That's really sad :-( What a tragedy, on so many levels.
While I wish nobody committed sucide this is kindof meaningless without including the sucide rate from the same demographic of the population (of the USA) as a whole. Anybody know?
Dumb question:
What's the protocol for those who attempt suicide in the U.S. Military? Is that a free ticket out of Iraq? For how long?
@Mr. Poe: depends on how severe it is. Most times they just put you on suicide watch and take your weapons away. Which is awesome in a war-zone.
So very, very sad. I remember one service member that killed a bunch of his officers, and then himself. Fucked up.
I didn't find the answer to my question but Wikpedia lists countries by suicide rate. 20 countries have a higher rate than is quoted in the article. Does that mean its more depressing to be a citizen of Switzerland, (18.4 suicides/100,000) than it is to be a US soldier (17.3 suicides/100,000)?
Maybe it just means that taking some statistic out of context and trying to prove some point is silly.
Can we leave NOW?
Um, isn't it also the most common deployment location PERIOD?
Yet another instance of the US military doing the insurgents' job for them.
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