Military suicides in Iraq raising questions

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/31123ISoldierSuicides.html



Rebecca Suell wants answers, and not the ones the U.S. Army is giving her.

Why does the Army keep calling the last letter her husband sent to her, the one he mailed from Iraq on June 15, a suicide note? Can taking a bottle of Tylenol really kill you? And how did he get his hands on a bottle of Tylenol in the middle of the desert anyway?

The questions may differ, but experts say the desperate search for answers - and the denial - are usually the same.

Since April, the military says, at least 17 Americans - 15 Army soldiers and two Marines - have taken their own lives in Iraq. The true number is almost certainly higher. At least two dozen noncombat deaths, some of them possible suicides, are under investigation according to an AP review of Army casualty reports.

Assessment team sent in

No one in the military is saying for the record that the suicide rate among forces in Iraq is alarming. But Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, was concerned enough, according to the Army Surgeon General's office, to have ordered a 12-person mental health assessment team to Iraq to see what more can be done to prevent suicides and to help troops better cope with anxiety and depression.

<snip>

Too many questions in this area. One of which has got to be that many have been forced to do things that they cannot live with.

[bluestateguy]

1. Yeah, but...

What about all the good things going on in Iraq? Why isn't the liberal media telling us about that? Hmm, why not? Yesterday a bunch of Iraqis went to school safely, and our troops passed out soccer balls to young boys, and they said thank you. Why don't we hear about that? Hmm, why not? And just because one or two soldiers get killed everyday that still means that over 100,000 soldiers ARE NOT attacked every day! Why don't we hear about that?

Damn lib media!

[coloradodem2005]

2. This is a sad state of affairs

This war was unnecessary, unjustified and unwise. I know that I am preaching to the choir here but the things that have gone on the last three years boggle my mind. I hope to God that it can end with the next election and we as a nation and world community can get back on course.

[Ediacara]

3. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[jonoboy]

4. what an unholy mess Blair and Bush have created

while they visit the local pub in Blair's constituency, while Laura Bush tour's The Queen's collection of Faberge Eggs.

Don't they have even one little second thought ???

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Harold Pinter wrote in one of the British rags inviting Bush to have

a glass of blood with his cucumber sandwich.

<snip>
And in a letter to the Guardian, playwright Harold Pinter wrote:

"Dear President Bush, I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair.

"Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood."
<snip>

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Those shrinks need to tell our boys they have to live to help us

vote this idiot president out of office. We need them. They have to hang on. If we all work together, we'll get them stateside and safe.