Their Darkest Hour

This is a tough topic to discuss, but I think I should say something.

Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher Online has written a few posts on the subject of the suicide of Iraq war veterans, including one post yesterday in which he notes that 118 U.S. military personnel have killed themselves since April 2003, representing about 3 percent of the overall Iraq death toll.

Mitchell mentions in particular Col. Ted Westhusing (angry about contractor abuses), Alyssa Peterson (appalled by interrogation techniques) and Linda Michel (denied medication after returning home). But Mitchell focuses specifically here on Pfc. Andrew T. Engstrom, 22, of Slaton, TX, with the Army describing his death as due to a “non combat-related incident.”

The post also tells us the following…

This past January, Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman noted in The Hartford Courant that veterans advocates found the increase of suicides in 2006 "troubling." Steve Robinson, director of government relations for Veterans for America, told them he was particularly disturbed by suicides in the war zone because combat troops are supposed to be screened for mental health issues before they join the military, and throughout their careers. "These people aren't the kind of people that you would think would take this step," he said.

Chekedel told me in an email recently," we haven't looked at 2007 suicides -- and it's a tough subject to get timely statistics on. The Defense Manpower Data Center reports, which come out periodically and are broken down by 'casualty category,' do keep a running count of self-inflicted deaths -- but because some cases are listed as 'pending,' and can be moved into the 'confirmed' category months later, it's tricky to get an accurate tally by calendar year."

Not even included in these tallies are cases like the following: "Two weeks ago Iraq vet Noah Pierce shot and killed himself in a remote section of northern Minnesota. The sheriff's office revealed that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and that Pierce had said, before he fled home with a few firearms, that he may be a danger to others as well as himself."

In the Deseret (Utah) Morning News last Monday, Stephen Speckman noted that the suicide rate among all veterans is now about twice the national average among nonveterans. On top of that, he added, "Among Army members, suicide rates between 2003 and 2006 for soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom were higher than the average Army rate, 16.1 versus 11.6 soldier suicides per year per 100,000, according to U.S. Army Medical Command spokesman Jerry Harben."

This is more current information, but this story from CBS News dated January of 2004 tells us of Army Specialist Joseph Suell, in which the Army originally attributed his death to a self-inflicted overdose of ibuprofen and amphetamine. Reporter Bob McNamara notes the following…

The Army has not released the findings of a mental-health team that went to Iraq last fall. And some charge the Pentagon is not telling the whole story.

The Pentagon counts at least 22 GI suicides in the Iraq conflict -- 19 of those Army troops -- most after major combat was declared over last May.

"It's statistically too high and it could be as many as 30 -- it could be as many as 30 in Iraq," said Steve Robinson, a retired Army Ranger who is lobbying Congress to pressure the Pentagon to come clean with the true extent of the war's psychiatric toll.

"This has the potential to be a bad news story," he said.

"A bombshell?" asked McNamara.

"I think so," Robinson replied.

There is actually good news, though. The Veterans Administration, under now-departing Secretary Jim Nicholson, states here that they are about to institute a 24-hour, national suicide prevention hot line that will go into effect on August 31st. No word yet on the actual hot line number or how this information is going to be announced (and would a web presence of some kind for the purposes of helping our service people here be too much to ask?).

For an issue that was categorized as “a bombshell” by a person as knowledgeable as Steve Robinson in 2004, this is a pitiably slow response on the part of both the VA and the U.S. Congress to a horrific plight faced by those who have bravely defended our nation.

Update 1 8/17: Paul Rieckhoff of HuffPo has more here.

Update 2 8/17: No words for this - no words...

Maybe they can get some copies from the 2004 Repug National Hatefest and use those instead, such as the one this idiot is wearing on her chin.