Suicides in armed forces

12:46 18/11/2007

The Blogger is off action today?

Now, the mighty US military machine have been caught hiding facts from the population. Well, this is not new, as it is an established habit to keep things secret in every nation in the world by their governments.

"The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.

CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.

The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.”

That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.

If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000."

From: Pentagon Cover Up

But the US government says that it is under the national average.

So I went to see what our own boffins are doing here in UK.

"The number of troops who have committed suicide after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is equivalent to 10 per cent of deaths suffered on operations."

Says "Growing suicide toll among troops"

But it also states that:

"There are also fears that the number of suicides among troops who have recently left the Armed Forces could be significantly higher than 17. However, no records are kept once they leave the Services.

Unless the problem is quickly addressed then the military could experience the neglect suffered by Falklands veterans where the estimated 300 suicides from the 1982 conflict far outstrips the 258 killed in action."






If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!