‘US soldier suicides climb in 2005’

Daily Times Pakistan ^ | 4/22/06 | AFP

[Critical Bill]

With 83 deaths in 2005, the suicide rate for active duty soldiers was 1.29 per 10,000 persons, up from 1.10 per 10,000 the year before and the 25-year average of 1.24 per 10,000, the army said. The rate for civilians from the same demographic group was 1.98 per 10,000 persons, the army said.

You are correct so where is the story here?

[Red6]

It's a non-issue, so why report it?

The focus of the article is on an increase in the trend. Is there a spin? Slightly I would say. The author basically quotes others that are credible and does give some objective measures. But, the focus of the article lies on a trend which is insignificant.

Maybe suicide will be the MSM's new buzzword since recruiting has already faded into the category of disproven over hyped media non-sense.

As PTSD, this suicide statistic will surely be picked up on and waved around by those who say they care about the soldier so much. You know, the same crowd that keeps exact tallies of US dead and wants to release pictures and details of the fallen before the family is even notified. The ones that spat on soldiers in the late 60s today throw around names and numbers of 2,600 dead to prove some point. They make murals of Bush’s face with all the dead soldiers’ pictures as Michael Moore did on his web-page, or they make mock graveyards with the names of the fallen in Crawford as Sheehan and here groupies did. It don’t matter, these people are the critics Theodore Roosevelt talked about in his speech “Man in the Arena”. These people were losers in the 60s, they wanted us to quit in the Cold War, and these “Americans” would actually like us to loose today against the same people who brought down the WTC. They are the enlightened ones in our society who talk about “Karma” and why this war is wrong. They are the ones who protest in front of Walter Reed. These people - “Who care so much about the American soldier” will surely pick up on this news too!

This article is fairly objective. I don't disbelieve the figures or the quotes of officials. But the topic itself is a spin, an angle which is used to demonstrate the horror of this war but when put into some objective reference is in all reality a non-sense issue. Why? Because light fluctuations have been the case for many years. During the time I was in, there was a slight increase in suicide rate in the late 90s, which then dropped off again. But that was Clintons time and the MSM probably does not want to write about that. It's not an issue, just like this whole story is no issue if it were not for a war we are in and the fact that everything is picked apart by the pundits against it. The baseline suicide rate is lower in the DoD than it is in civilian life. Better yet, the DoD has a younger population and it’s more the young folk that commit suicide. So basically the DoD has by age a more at risk population group yet a lower rate than compared to the civilian side. What does all this mean? Nothing. In the end, websites like the DailyKos (Where I as a disabled combat Vet was ridiculed for voicing my opinion that PTSD is NOT a large issue) will take this and run with it, since they "care about the soldier. They will create an elaborate fabric of arguments that weave Iraq, Afghanistan and the suicide rate increase all together. They will talk and talk and talk and while mostly Bullshit, they will link all these weak links together to paint the picture in some way they would like to see it.

[isrul]

So the rate is lower among the military than civilians in the same demographic. That should be a selling point for enlistment. NO negative for the military.

[armymarinemom]

College Students still have the highest rates.