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Whiteside's personal tragedy is part of an alarming phenomenon in the Army's ranks: Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.
At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
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Yup, keep recycling them back through the Hell, horror, and carnage and eventually people will only see one way out, thinking it better than the Hell on Earth they are forced to experience repeatedly. What most of the draft dodgers and deserters making the decisions don't get, never did because they had "other priorities" when the time came for them to serve, is that the human mind can only take so much horror. When that point is reached, bad things start to happen. You'd think the Army would have known this. You know, "our experience in Vietnam" and all. Oh, wait ...
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The Army was unprepared for the high number of suicides and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among its troops, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued far longer than anticipated. Many Army posts still do not offer enough individual counseling and some soldiers suffering psychological problems complain that they are stigmatized by commanders. Over the past year, four high-level commissions have recommended reforms and Congress has given the military hundreds of millions of dollars to improve its mental health care, but critics charge that significant progress has not been made. [my ems]
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Oh yeah, that's right, the
The only way progress in this area will be made is when this occupation is over and our troops come home.
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