Iraq Veterans vulnerable to commit suicide

[John99]

but I have friends who have lost their only brothers at the border, fighting in the IAS; its a thankless job and they are not trying to steal land or throw out the inhabitants.

At least he did not come home and commit suicide.

I know police officers have a hard time dealing with what they see also, and someone told me that Psychiatrists have the highest suicide rate due to all the bad stories they listen to.

 

[S.A.M.]

At least he did not come home and commit suicide.

I know police officers have a hard time dealing with what they see also, and someone told me that Psychiatrists have the highest suicide rate due to all the bad stories they listen to.

Many of them commit suicide

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/jan/fah-army.htm

The Indian Army has been surprisingly candid in releasing figures of the suicides and fratricides that have wracked the force in the recent past. A report out of Kashmir in the Himal of December 2006 carries the revealing statistics that in October this year there were ten fratricide cases as against only three deaths in combat operations. All told, in the first ten months of the year, the army lost 55 soldiers to terrorism in Kashmir, while one third more took their own lives. It is not a figure that any army would release of its own, since morale related security reasons would have stymied such openness.

That 500 defense personnel have reportedly either committed suicide or were killed by colleagues in the past four years indicates that the problem has crossed the threshold in which it could be treated as internal to the army.

 

[GeoffP]

What was the point of this thread in the first place?

 

[S.A.M.]

"Let us never cease from thinking--What is this 'civilization' in which we find ourselves? What are these ceremonies and why should we take part in them? What are these professions and why should we make money out of them?"

Virginia Woolf. Three Guineas. NY: Harcourt Brace, 1936.

 

[shichimenshyo]

What was the point of this thread in the first place?

To bash America and avoid the real topic ...duh

 

[quadraphonics]

Many of them commit suicide

I would probably commit suicide as well if I were part of a brutal, decades-long campaign to violently crush civilian resistance to a military land-grab, employing techniques such as collective punishment, rape, torture and arson.

 

[S.A.M.]

I would probably commit suicide as well if I were part of a brutal, decades-long campaign to violently crush civilian resistance to a military land-grab, employing techniques such as collective punishment, rape, torture and arson.

I doubt it. You live in a country based on genocide, where natives have been subjected to all of the above, the remainder marginalised and put away in reservations. You cannot afford to be that sensitive.

 

[quadraphonics]

I doubt it. You live in a country based on genocide,

All countries are based on genocide. The only difference is how recently it occured.

However, I note that this is a dramatic reversal of your previous position in this thread: that Iraq vets were killing themselves over guilt at participating in whatever atrocities.

 

[S.A.M.]

All countries are based on genocide. The only difference is how recently it occured.

However, I note that this is a dramatic reversal of your previous position in this thread: that Iraq vets were killing themselves over guilt at participating in whatever atrocities.

Nope, because they are in a foreign country where they are killing people for NO REASON. People who did nothing to them, who were in their own country, minding their own business.

While a senior U.S. military official has said the unit had been ordered to carry out what is known as a maintenance stand-down and its soldiers are not under arrest, many Iraq veterans in the United States feel the incident is indicative of poor troop morale, which stems from the growing belief among soldiers that the war in Iraq is unjustified.

Army National Guard member Sergeant Kelly Dougherty served for 10 months in Iraq at Tallil Air Base, near Nasiriya. ”The people in Iraq didn't have money or jobs and their cities were destitute,” said Dougherty, who worked escorting convoys and patrols.

”I wondered how these people were functioning after they'd been through so much. They hadn't even rebuilt from the first Gulf War (in 1991).”

During a phone interview Dougherty said her unit did not even have translators for the first nine months of the occupation and were thus unable to communicate with Iraqis while conducting security patrols.

”I think it was definitely wrong to go into Iraq,” she added. ”I thought that before we went in and the intelligence is proving this now.”

Like other soldiers who are beginning to speak out against the Bush administration, Dougherty has strong words about how the war was waged. ”People say the president didn't lie -- but it's hard for me to believe that they truly thought the reasons they went in were true,” she said.

”I think we were intentionally lied to in order to get the U.S. into Iraq, and the Bush administration seized this opportunity.” The president, she added, was also being dishonest about the dangers that soldiers would face when he did not provide them with the necessary armour and supplies.

Another veteran of the war in Iraq is Corporal Alex Ryabov, who participated in the invasion of Iraq until May 9. ”What I realise after having been there is that it (the war) is such a huge waste of life on both sides,” he said in an interview.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1026-02.htm

 

[quadraphonics]

Nope, because they are in a foreign country where they are killing people for NO REASON. People who did nothing to them, who were in their own country, minding their own business.

Exactly like the Indian occupation of Kashmir.

 

[S.A.M.]

Exactly like the Indian occupation of Kashmir.

Not really, the Indian Armed Forces are fighting to protect the citizens of India from foreign extremists. Even that is so stressful that 500 of them have killed themselves or each other in the last four years. Imagine a war where you are fighting civilians in a different country, defending nothing, for no reason. What are the stats on Iraq veterans suicide rates?

http://www.ivaw.org/faq

 

[quadraphonics]

Not really, the Indian Armed Forces are fighting to protect the citizens of India from foreign extremists.

Yeah, just like the Israeli Defense Force is fighting to protect the citizens of Israel from foreign extremists.

Imagine a war where you are fighting civilians in a different country, defending nothing, for no reason.

As I just said, I'd be very depressed if I were serving in Kashmir with the Indian Army. The only question is whether I'd feel worse about the rape, arson, torture or massacres.

 

[S.A.M.]

Yeah, just like the Israeli Defense Force is fighting to protect the citizens of Israel from foreign extremists.

No, the extremists are not coming over a border, the IDF is using their villages and homes for settlements

As I just said, I'd be very depressed if I were serving in Kashmir with the Indian Army. The only question is whether I'd feel worse about the rape, arson, torture or massacres.

I doubt it.

 

[quadraphonics]

No, the extremists are not coming over a border, the IDF is using their villages and homes for settlements

And the Indian Armed Forces are using the Kashmiri's villages and homes for target practice. Between raids to murder and rape random civilians, that is.

I doubt it.

As someone who supports the violent, unprovoked repression of a neighboring people in a brutal land grab, you lack the moral standing to have your character assessments taken seriously.

 

[S.A.M.]

And the Indian Armed Forces are using the Kashmiri's villages and homes for target practice. Between raids to murder and rape random civilians, that is.



As someone who supports the violent, unprovoked repression of a neighboring people in a brutal land grab, you lack the moral standing to have your character assessments taken seriously.

This seems to have become a circular argument.

 

[quadraphonics]

This seems to have become a circular argument.

Indeed. Perhaps that was even the point.

 

[Mr. G]

Iraq has increased the attacks, the extremism, more terrorist attacks in India since the war. Fools pour their money into it and claim to support their troops in pointles wars, killing innocent people in our country from the backlash that they are too far away to experience.

Your side of the world, afforded so many more centuries for refining its expert cultural management techniques, allowed for the kinds of circumstances that motivated a group of you folks to come to our side of the world and poke their unwanted noses into our lives and our business.

Sadly, it would seem for you, our side of the world has the ability to send your wayward folks back to you to fix as best you can.

We're not feeling much sympathy over here for your demonstrated incompetence at managing your own business, without us having to intercede and show you how it's properly done.

Instead of slamming us, get off your butt and fix your own problems. We don't need to listen to your constant b'tching about how we complicate your oh so much more superior lifestyle.

It's just not looking that way from here.

Sorry for your life. Not our problem -- until you make it our problem, then we deal with it on our terms.

Deal with it.

 

[GeoffP]

I doubt it. You live in a country based on genocide, where natives have been subjected to all of the above, the remainder marginalised and put away in reservations. You cannot afford to be that sensitive.

Kettle...meet pot.

Pot...kettle.

 

[wanneszinnig]

What was the point of this thread in the first place?

chec the first pages

 

[S.A.M.]

Your side of the world, afforded so many more centuries for refining its expert cultural management techniques, allowed for the kinds of circumstances that motivated a group of you folks to come to our side of the world and poke their unwanted noses into our lives and our business.

Sadly, it would seem for you, our side of the world has the ability to send your wayward folks back to you to fix as best you can.

We're not feeling much sympathy over here for your demonstrated incompetence at managing your own business, without us having to intercede and show you how it's properly done.

Instead of slamming us, get off your butt and fix your own problems. We don't need to listen to your constant b'tching about how we complicate your oh so much more superior lifestyle.

It's just not looking that way from here.

Sorry for your life. Not our problem -- until you make it our problem, then we deal with it on our terms.

Deal with it.

Should knock down that Statue of Liberty.

When you come to our lands it is to take and destroy, we come to build and create.

Obviously you'll see a difference.