Suicides are surging among US troops

[Irfan Baloch]

WASHINGTON: Suicides are surging among America’s troops, averaging nearly one a day this year, the fastest pace in the nation’s decade of war. http://dawn.com/2012/06/08/suicides-are-surging-among-us-troops/http://dawn.com/2012/06/08/suicides-are-surging-among-us-troops/

The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the US forces killed in action in Afghanistan, about 50 per cent more, according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press.

The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than foreseen a decade ago. The military also is struggling with increased sexual assaults, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other misbehavior.

Because suicides had leveled off in 2010 and 2011, this year’s upswing has caught some officials by surprise.

The reasons for the increase are not fully understood. Among explanations, studies have pointed to combat exposure, post-traumatic stress, misuse of prescription medications and personal financial problems.

Army data suggest soldiers with multiple combat tours are at greater risk of committing suicide, although a substantial proportion of Army suicides are committed by soldiers who never deployed.

The unpopular war in Afghanistan is winding down with the last combat troops scheduled to leave at the end of 2014.

But this year has seen record numbers of soldiers being killed by Afghan troops, and there also have been several scandals involving US troop misconduct.

The 2012 active-duty suicide total of 154 through June 3 compares to 130 in the same period last year, an 18 per cent increase. And it’s more than the 136.2 suicides that the Pentagon had projected for this period based on the trend from 2001-2011.

This year’s January-May total is up 25 per cent from two years ago, and it is 16 per cent ahead of the pace for 2009, which ended with the highest yearly total thus far.

Suicide totals have exceeded US combat deaths in Afghanistan in earlier periods, including for the full years 2008 and 2009.


The suicide pattern varies over the course of a year, but in each of the past five years the trend through May was a reliable predictor for the full year, according to a chart based on figures provided by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner.

The numbers are rising among the 1.4 million active-duty military personnel despite years of effort to encourage troops to seek help with mental health problems.

Many in the military believe that going for help is seen as a sign of weakness and thus a potential threat to advancement.

Kim Ruocco, widow of Marine Maj. John Ruocco, a helicopter pilot who hanged himself in 2005 between Iraq deployments, said he was unable to bring himself to go for help.

“He was so afraid of how people would view him once he went for help,” she said in an interview at her home in suburban Boston.

“He thought that people would think he was weak, that people would think he was just trying to get out of redeploying or trying to get out of service, or that he just couldn’t hack it – when, in reality, he was sick. He had suffered injury in combat and he had also suffered from depression and let it go untreated for years. And because of that, he’s dead today.”

Ruocco is currently director of suicide prevention programs for the military support organization Tragedy Assistance Programs, or Taps.

Jackie Garrick, head of a newly established Defense Suicide Prevention Office at the Pentagon, said in an interview Thursday that the suicide numbers this year are troubling.

“We are very concerned at this point that we are seeing a high number of suicides at a point in time where we were expecting to see a lower number of suicides,” she said, adding that the weak US economy may be confounding preventive efforts even as the pace of military deployments eases.

Dr Stephen N Xenakis, a retired Army brigadier general and a practicing psychiatrist, said the suicides reflect the level of tension as the US eases out of Afghanistan though violence continues.

“It’s a sign in general of the stress the Army has been under over the 10 years of war,” he said in an interview.

“We’ve seen before that these signs show up even more dramatically when the fighting seems to go down and the Army is returning to garrison.”

The military services have set up confidential telephone hotlines, placed more mental health specialists on the battlefield, added training in stress management, invested more in research on mental health risk and taken other measures.

The suicide numbers began surging in 2006. They soared in 2009 and then leveled off before climbing again this year.

The statistics include only active-duty troops, not veterans who returned to civilian life after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor does the Pentagon’s tally include non-mobilized National Guard or Reserve members, part-time troops who normally divide time between civilian life and military services.


====
is it guilty conscience? or lack of it?

maybe Panetta can explain. if US stops mid night raids on the civilian population and stop the American kill teams from collecting human trophies from dead Afghan civilians then the problems with the suicide and the Panetta's patience will be addressed

in any case hopefully these stressed out soldiers will be coming back soon to America, coming to live near all their fanboys who praise their videos. hopefully the post traumatic stress and the thrill to kill the Afghans doesnt take over them while back in USA otherwise the fanboys will experience in first person what the Afghan civilians went through when these trigger happy stressed out soldiers discharged uncle Sam's weapons on them.


no matter how awesome they are and no matter how much hi-tech they are no matter how many brown people they kill

but
in the end they are still human and this travesty catches up with them and they either commit suicides or they turn their guns to their colleagues, partners or fellow citizens when they return home.


Obama you made your point, your soldiers have killed tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan & Pakistani tribal areas. you got Osama now call your troops back or this suicide rate will only keep on going up and there will be trouble when they come back home.

unless if you planning to use them on Pakistan, Syria or Iran then thats a different thing maybe you are up for another Nobel prize for peace?

 

[lem34]

The hidden costs are far greater and western press tries to underplay it as their people would throw out these corrupt western regimes

 

[Safriz]

I blame US politicians..They put these soldiers in a position they don't want to be in.....Being Patriot is one thing and having a conscience is another...No doubt these were patriot soldiers but they had and opinion and had a conscience...War in Iraq was started on a load of farce,Saddam Hussain's WMD were never found and the mobile Chemical weapon making trucks never existed..That means USA politicians are guilty of Over running a Nation without reason...
No wonder it depresses soldiers who have a conscience...

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

I am glad that USA paid a very dear price in Iraq and Afghanistan, resulted in dire consequences on it's economy and with high number of casualties. That happens when America gets crazy and start missing with Arabs and Muslims. I believe that US catualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are far more than announced. USA didn't envade Iraq to withdraw from it later, but with the losses they got, they fled with down heads.

 

[Windjammer]

Although the Vietnam nightmare still haunts the Americans, however desecrating the bodies of dead Taliban fighters proved how the wars have taken their toll on their mindset and how bankrupt are the American moral values. While some may expand their chest while others can not live with it.
Suffice to say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

The hidden costs are far greater and western press tries to underplay it as their people would throw out these corrupt western regimes

these soldiers also become unfit for normal civilian life once their army career is over, they can self harm or threaten the people around them. this is why American marmongers keep finding new conflicts to keep these boys away from the homeland.

Although the Vietnam nightmare still haunts the Americans, however desecrating the bodies of dead Taliban fighters proved how the wars have taken their toll on their mindset and how bankrupt are the American moral values. While some may expand their chest while others can not live with it.
Suffice to say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I find the keyboard warriors & fanboys and non American arselickers more despicable who are always ready to praise the killings of civilians at the hands of Americans any where in the world.

just wait and see when they return home and cant reconcile with the reality where they are. I wonder if their fanboys will be as forthcoming to praise the news when these soldiers will kill people in night clubs or kill someone in their neighbourhood. it has happened before and there is no guarantee it wont happen again.

 

[lem34]

these soldiers also become unfit for normal civilian life once their army career is over, they can self harm or threaten the people around them. this is why American marmongers keep finding new conflicts to keep these boys away from the homeland.

The shocking cost of war: Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are 'the most damaged generation ever' with almost HALF seeking disability benefits

By The Associated Press

PUBLISHED: 06:01, 28 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:58, 28 May 2012


On the day America stops to remember the sacrifices made by its troops, new figures reveal the terrible toll of war is now leaving nearly half of all veterans filing for disability benefits.

The nation's newest veterans are the most medically and mentally troubled generation of former troops in history, with a staggering 45 per cent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related.

That is more than double the estimate of 21 per cent who filed such claims after the Gulf War in the early 1990s, top government officials told The Associated Press.

These new veterans are also claiming eight to nine ailments on average, and the most recent ones over the last year are claiming 11 to 14.

By comparison, Vietnam veterans are currently receiving compensation for fewer than four, on average, and those from World War II and Korea, just two.

It's unclear how much worse off these new veterans are than their predecessors.

Many factors are driving the dramatic increase in claims — the weak economy, more troops surviving wounds, and more awareness of problems such as concussions and PTSD. Almost one-third have been granted disability so far.

DISABILITIES NEW VETS ARE CLAIMING BENEFITS FOR

Over 400,000 new vets have mental health issues

More than 1,600 of them have lost a limb, many others have lost fingers or toes

At least 156 are blind and thousands of others have impaired vision

More than 177,000 have hearing loss and more than 350,000 report tinnitus or ringing in the ears

Thousands are disfigured, as many as 200 of them requiring face transplants

Government officials and veterans' advocates say returned servicemen who were working but lost their jobs or can't find employment are increasingly seeking benefits.

Payments range from $127 a month for a 10 per cent disability to $2,769 for a full one.

But there is no special fund set aside to pay the unprecedented level of claims.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is mired in backlogged claims but Allison Hickey, the VA's undersecretary for benefits said its mission was 'to take care of whatever the population is'.

'We want them to have what their entitlement is.'

The AP spent three months reviewing records and talking with doctors, government officials and former troops to take stock of the new veterans.

They are different in many ways from those who fought before them.

More are from the Reserves and National Guard — 28 per cent of those filing disability claims — rather than career military.

Reserves and National Guard made up a greater percentage of troops in these wars than they did in previous ones.

About 31 per cent of Guard/Reserve new veterans have filed claims compared to 56 per cent of career military ones.

More of the new veterans are women, accounting for 12 per cent of those who have sought care.

Some female veterans are claiming PTSD due to military sexual trauma, a problem that rarely came up in other wars.

The new veterans have different types of injuries than previous veterans did as well. This is partly because improvised bombs have been the main weapon and because body armor and improved battlefield care allowed many of them to survive wounds that in past
wars proved fatal.

Triple amputee Larry Bailey II, is one of the many new veterans who will receive benefits

'They're being kept alive at unprecedented rates,' said Dr David Cifu, the VA's medical rehabilitation chief. More than 95 per cent of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have survived.

Larry Bailey II is an example. After tripping a rooftop bomb in Afghanistan last June, the 26-year-old Marine remembers flying into the air, then fellow troops attending to him.

'I pretty much knew that my legs were gone. My left hand, from what I remember I still had three fingers on it,' although they didn't seem right, Bailey said.

'I looked a few times but then they told me to stop looking.' Bailey, who is from Zion, Illinois, ended up a triple amputee and expects to get a hand transplant this summer.

He is still transitioning from active duty and is not yet a veteran. Just over half of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans eligible for VA care have used it so far.

'The numbers are pretty staggering,' said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who has done four face transplants on non-military patients and expects to start doing them soon on veterans.

Amputee: U.S. Marine Andrew Kinard, sits in his wheelchair as he prepares to use his prosthetic legs

Others have invisible wounds. More than 400,000 of these new veterans have been treated by the VA for a mental health problem, most commonly, PTSD.

Tens of thousands of veterans suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI — mostly mild concussions from bomb blasts — and doctors don't know what's in store for them long-term.

Cifu, of the VA, said that roughly 20 per cent of active duty troops suffered concussions, but only one-third of them have symptoms lasting beyond a few months.

That's still a big number, and 'it's very rare that someone has just a single concussion,' said David Hovda, director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center.

Suffering multiple concussions, or one soon after another, raises the risk of long-term problems. A brain injury also makes the brain more susceptible to PTSD, he said.

On a more mundane level, many new veterans have back, shoulder and knee problems, aggravated by carrying heavy packs and wearing the body armor that helped keep them alive.

One recent study found that 19 per cent required orthopedic surgery consultations and 4 per cent needed surgery after returning from combat.

Rehabilitation: More than 1,600 veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq have lost limbs in service

All of this adds up to more disability claims, which for years have been coming in faster than the government can handle them.

The average wait to get a new one processed grows longer each month and is now about eight months — time that a frustrated, injured veteran might spend with no income.

More than 560,000 veterans from all wars currently have claims that are backlogged — older than 125 days.

The VA's benefits chief, Hickey, said disability claims from all veterans soared from 888,000 in 2008 to 1.3 million in 2011.

Last year's included more than 230,000 new claims from Vietnam veterans and their survivors because of a change in what conditions can be considered related to Agent Orange exposure. Those complex, 50-year-old cases took more than a third of available staff, she said.

The high number of ailments per claim is also contributing to the backlog. When a veteran claims 11 to 14 problems, each one requires 'due diligence' — a medical evaluation and proof that it is service-related, Hickey said.

Barry Jesinoski, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, called Hickey's efforts 'commendable', but said the VA had a long way to go to meet veterans' needs.

Even before the surge in Agent Orange cases, VA officials 'were already at a place that was unacceptable' on backlogged claims, he said.

Damaged: Shane Baldwin, pictured, is one of the growing number of veterans claiming compensation for injuries

Damaged: Shane Baldwin,, is one of the growing number of veterans claiming compensation for injuries He and VA officials agree that the economy is motivating some claims. His group helps veterans file them, and he said that sometimes when veterans come in, 'We'll say, 'Is your back worse?' and they'll say, 'No, I just lost my job.''

Jesinoski does believe these veterans have more mental problems, especially from multiple deployments. 'You just can't keep sending people into war five, six or seven times and expect that they're going to come home just fine,' he said.

For taxpayers, the ordeal is just beginning. With any war, the cost of caring for veterans rises for several decades and peaks 30 to 40 years later, when diseases of aging are more common, said Harvard economist Linda Bilmes. She estimates the health care and disability costs of the recent wars at $600 billion to $900 billion.

'This is a huge number and there's no money set aside,' she said. 'Unless we take steps now into some kind of fund that will grow over time, it's very plausible many people will feel we can't afford these benefits we overpromised.'

How would that play to these veterans, who all volunteered and now expect the government to keep its end of the bargain?

'The deal was, if you get wounded, we're going to supply this level of support,' Bilmes said. Right now, 'there's a lot of sympathy and a lot of people want to help. But memories are short and times change.'

Read more: The shocking cost of war: Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are 'the most damaged generation ever' with almost HALF seeking disability benefits | Mail Online

Crimes of Aipac infected regime in Washington. Their own people as much victims

 

[Jango]

Killing a civilian, and then the outcomes and pictures of their crying relatives, do leave a permanent mark in a persons mind. Depression sets in, soldiers talk less, and don't concentrate. That's the cost of war, but panetta keeps on war mongering.

154 in 155 days is toooo high.

 

[Safriz]

Many of these soldiers wives/girlfriends cheat on them while they are abroad on deployment and these soldiers often come back to an empty house as their Partner had left with another man,putting these soldiers under stress and psychological problems.

 

[Luffy 500]

Very good news. Hope more yanki terrorist pay the price for their genocide in afghanistan and iraq.

 

[lem34]

These problems will haunt Americans for years

 

[Irfan Baloch]

Very good news. Hope more yanki terrorist pay the price for their genocide in afghanistan and iraq.

no mate we must not act like them and their fanboys

who praise the deaths of Pakistani, Afghan and iraqi civilians

we are better than them. we are only showing them the mirror that whatever they have done in the name of freedom & justice and the war on terror is bound to come back and hound them.

I can bet you that some morons will still laugh it off because these deaths are NOT Significant enough but these morons miss the point which is that these soldiers are loosing their minds now. granted that their enemies (both armed or unarmed) cant defeat them militarily but they have to fight with themselves, their conscience even a heartless soldier will have a breakdown at one point.

 

[Imran Khan]

sick army or sick country who solve every matter with war . let them die

 

[Safriz]

These problems will haunt Americans for years

People at home know only what CNN/FOX news tells them,so no problems for them,they will cheer and jeer when they are shown bombs being dropped at evil taliban...But these soldiers actually see the reality that the bombs often fall on sleeping civilians who had nothing to do with the war....this becomes difficult for them to accept as they were told something totally different from what they see when they are out there...

 

[Alienoz_TR]

Very good. Enemy of enemy comes from within.