U.S. Soldiers Committing Suicide At An Alarming Rate

From BET.com: U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan – after a steady diet of loneliness and up-close violence – are committing suicide at an alarming rate. In 2007, according to Defense Department officials, 108 troops took their own lives. One in four of those deaths took place in Iraq, The Associated Press reported, citing the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The suicide figures could be the highest in history. “The overall toll was the highest in many years, and it was unclear when, if ever, it was previously that high,” AP reports. “Immediately available Army records go back only to 1990 and the figure then was lower — at 102 — for that year as well as 1991.” Still, the 108 deaths among active-duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops were lower than previously feared, the wire service reports. In earlier reports, some 121 U.S. troops were believed to have committed suicide; many of those deaths, it was later learned, were not the result of suicide, the officials said. Violence escalated in Afghanistan during 2007, as did overall deaths in Iraq. The biggest disappoint for military officials is that the suicides climbed despite an increase in mental health initiatives designed to help troops deal with the stresses of war. They included suicide-prevention and other education programs, the hiring of more than 300 additional psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals and have so far hired 180 of them. They also have added more screening to measure the mental health of troops. “Since the beginning of the global war on terror, the Army has lost over 580 soldiers to suicide, an equivalent of an entire infantry battalion task force,” the Army said in a suicide-prevention guide to installations and units that was posted in mid-March on the site. “This ranks as the fourth leading manner of death for soldiers, exceeded only by hostile fire, accidents and illnesses,” it said. “Even more startling is that during this same period, 10 to 20 times as many soldiers have thought to harm themselves or attempted suicide.”

So now you tell me, is this war still worth fighting? Not only are our soldiers getting killed by insurgents, car bombs, flying bomb materials, and trigger happy kids, but they're taking their own lives. And Dubya still thinks that this is the right thing to do. That we still have a purpose for being in Iraq. I don't get it. Do you?