It’s not what you might think. It’s not dying in battle. It’s not losing your life. It’s losing your mind, your heart, your soul, and the life force inside you that makes you want to survive.
In the month that just ended, 16 young American soldiers made that sacrifice. Will anyone care about their sacrifice outside their families and friends? Will politicians and media pundits intone their solemn metaphorical hymns of praise to the nobility of the cause to which these young men were sacrificed, or laud their courage and bravery?
Sixteen American soldiers killed themselves in October, an unusually high monthly toll that has senior military officers worried about the impact of sending tens of thousands of new troops into Afghanistan. WSJ’s Yochi Dreazen reports.
The Army’s top generals worry that surging tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan could increase the strain felt by many military personnel after years of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year’s record of 140 active-duty suicides. The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time.
I’m sure that the war faithful will find a way to jigger these numbers — trivialize them, minimize their significance. Don’t they always? That’s what “support the troops” really means, in essence. It means “support the heroes — the ones who make us want to salute the flag; the ones politicians can use to preen and posture, shed a few tears at the lectern, and count on to keep the money flowing into the campaign coffers.”
Meanwhile, the men and women who could not endure the pain anymore — the kind of pain that can’t be traced to any wound you can see — and their loved ones, will continue to pay the price.
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