A Sign of Empire Pathology

Pepe Silvia

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=16916

A Sign of Empire Pathology
More US military personnel have taken their OWN lives than have died in action

by Finian Cunningham

Here is a shocking statistic that you won't hear in most western news media: over the past nine years, more US military personnel have taken their own lives than have died in action in either the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. These are official figures from the US Department of Defence, yet somehow they have not been deemed newsworthy to report. Last year alone, more than 330 serving members of the US armed forces committed suicide - more than the 320 killed in Afghanistan and the 150 who fell in Iraq (see wsws.org).

Since 2001, when Washington launched its so-called war on terror, there has been a dramatic year-on-year increase in US military suicides, particularly in the army, which has borne the brunt of fighting abroad. Last year saw the highest total number since such records began in 1980. Prior to 2001, the suicide rate in the US military was lower than that for the general US population; now, it is nearly double the national average.

A growing number of these victims have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington's "war on terror" - which is probably why western news media prefer to ignore the issue. How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

What is even more disturbing is that the official figures only count victims of suicide among serving personnel. Not included are the many more veterans - officially classed a civilians - who take their own lives.

Most likely, these deaths are reported in some small-town newspaper in "a brief" news item with no context or background as to what drove these individuals to take their own lives. It is estimated that the suicide rate among veterans demobbed from fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq is as high as four times the national average. The US Department of Veteran Affairs calculates that over 6,000 former service personnel commit suicide every year.

Many of these men have come home to a country they have fought for only to find no jobs, their homes repossessed by banks that have enjoyed trillion-dollar bailouts and broken relationships.

Meanwhile, President Obama - the erstwhile peace candidate - has taken on the role of Commander in Chief with gusto, telling his countrymen and women that they are fighting a "just war" to "defend American lives". Only a year ago, he was campaigning for the presidency on a ticket to end such wars. Now, more than his predecessor, George W Bush, Obama is committing to wars without end. How soul-destroying is that for a grunt holed up in a bunker, with his young family back home probably telling him that they have just signed up for food stamps? In their guts, these US soldiers must know - as many other ordinary people around the world do - that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire - an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live?

mikepegg44

Pepe Silvia wrote:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16916

A Sign of Empire Pathology
More US military personnel have taken their OWN lives than have died in action

by Finian Cunningham

Meanwhile, President Obama - the erstwhile peace candidate - has taken on the role of Commander in Chief with gusto, telling his countrymen and women that they are fighting a "just war" to "defend American lives". Only a year ago, he was campaigning for the presidency on a ticket to end such wars. Now, more than his predecessor, George W Bush, Obama is committing to wars without end. How soul-destroying is that for a grunt holed up in a bunker, with his young family back home probably telling him that they have just signed up for food stamps? In their guts, these US soldiers must know - as many other ordinary people around the world do - that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire - an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live?

the numbers are one thing, and they are horrible, but simplifying suicide to something as stupid as a the effect of a crumbling empire is a sad. The pain someone is in to take their own life is not an effect of a macro-societal level opinion, it is the cumulative affects on the individual from outside sources. the author brings up a great point about suicides and the armed forces...it definitely needs to be studied to find out what is going on and to try to get these brave men and women the help they need. But to trivialize the suicides to further his own progressive anti-military/american stance is disgusting. These men and women are not killing themselves because they see america as a "crumbling empire" and this author should be ashamed of himself. The statistics he is talking about are alarming and they speak for themselves, there is no need to add the latter opinion on the matter. the more I type the angrier I get about this so I am going to have to take a break...

Pepe Silvia

methinks you are taking that sentence out of context and ignoring everything else

mikepegg44

there is no way to take that out of context. i get it. i have battled with depression my entire adult life. this trivializes it. the army should take better care of its people, absolutely, but the wars have nothing to do with the last ditch effort of a crumbling empire. they are separate issues. relationships are still the main cause of suicide, military or not.

mikepegg44

there is no way to take that out of context. i get it. i have battled with depression my entire adult life. this trivializes it. the army should take better care of its people, absolutely, but the wars have nothing to do with the last ditch effort of a crumbling empire. they are separate issues. relationships are still the main cause of suicide, the military or not.

he still stands

mikepegg, I agree. It is incredibly sad when anyone commits suicide, especially someone who is young and has been dealt some shitty cards. The author here, like you said, is obviously trying to use this as "evidence" for an opinion of his (a crumbling empire) that he is trying to sell to the reader.

This is not an argument based on logic or cause and effect, it is an assertion of opinion and holds no real value.

It reminds me of the Tim Leary psychology book I recently read. In the first chapter it talks about modeling our mind as containing a "thinker" and a "prover." The thinker can think the earth is hollow, that it is floating in space (which I believe), can regard itself as mortal, immortal, as both or even non-existent (buddhism). It can think itself into living in a Christian universe, a Marxist universe, or a Nazi universe... among many (infinite) possibilities. The Prover is a much simpler mechanism. It operates on one law only. Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves.

Here, the author thinks the U.S. "empire" is crumbling and uses military suicide as "proof."

Pepe Silvia

i guess you two missed these sentences, huh?

What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington's "war on terror"

How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

he didn't say or imply they were committing suicide because they feel the empire is crumbling, he said they probably realize the wars were a result of it.

what he DID say and imply was they were committing suicide over the effects of the war on terror and how the empire cares so little for them and their families

he still stands

Pepe Silvia wrote:

i guess you two missed these sentences, huh?

What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington's "war on terror"

How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

he didn't say or imply they were committing suicide because they feel the empire is crumbling, he said they probably realize the wars were a result of it.

what he DID say and imply was they were committing suicide over the effects of the war on terror and how the empire cares so little for them and their families

oh come on... the title of the article and the conclusion (the last sentence, anyhow) both directly point to the american "empire" as being the causal factor. If you begin and end your assumption with the same point it is hard to argue that that point isn't important.

Pepe Silvia

so are you changing your argument now? cos originally it was

These men and women are not killing themselves because they see america as a "crumbling empire" and this author should be ashamed of himself. The statistics he is talking about are alarming and they speak for themselves, there is no need to add the latter opinion on the matter.

(i know that was mike's reply but you agreed with it and here we are)

because he never says or implies they are killing themselves "because they see america as a crumbling empire".

his title does not imply it either. let's take a look at his title since we are getting confused, shall we?

'a sign of empire pathology'

merriam webster says the definition of 'pathology' is

1
: the study of the essential nature of diseases and especially of the structural and functional changes produced by them
2
: something abnormal:
a : the structural and functional deviations from the normal that constitute disease or characterize a particular disease
b : deviation from propriety or from an assumed normal state of something nonliving or nonmaterial
c : deviation giving rise to social ills <connections between these pathologies … and crime — Wendy Kamin

that title does not imply anything is crumbling or any troops are killing themselves because they think that. to say any different is quite a stretch

let's look again at the direct quotes where nothing is implied, it is clearly stated:

What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington's "war on terror"

How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

he is clearly saying the mentality and actions of being an empire that treats people like soldiers and their families as pawns and easily cast aside on top of the effects of fighting this 'war on terror' are what he thinks is driving them to it. i just don't see how he's saying they are doing it because they think the empire is crumbling.

let's take a look at the part of the last paragraph mikepegg is saying points to them killing themselves because it's "a crumbling empire"

Meanwhile, President Obama - the erstwhile peace candidate - has taken on the role of Commander in Chief with gusto, telling his countrymen and women that they are fighting a "just war" to "defend American lives". Only a year ago, he was campaigning for the presidency on a ticket to end such wars. Now, more than his predecessor, George W Bush, Obama is committing to wars without end. How soul-destroying is that for a grunt holed up in a bunker, with his young family back home probably telling him that they have just signed up for food stamps? In their guts, these US soldiers must know - as many other ordinary people around the world do - that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire - an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live?

what's this? " as many other ordinary people around the world do" so why aren't these many other ordinary people around the world killing themselves?? maybe because he is never implying that is a reason for anything, he is just saying that is what the wars are but it's the effects of the wars and the treatment and lack of care by the government that are the factors (again not implied but clearly stated)

MotoDC

Pepe Silvia wrote:

so are you changing your argument now?

That's a bit of a stretch. What he did was clarify it. The author's basic premise, in order of causation is: Empire Pathology --> Injust War --> Soldier Suicide.

he still stands skipped the middle step in his first argument and then included it in his second. Hardly a full-blown change in argument. The point still remains that the author is extrapolating out an assumption (about why these poor men and women are taking their own lives) in order to further his own agenda vis a vis America as the Evil Empire.

And as a secondary point that is more a criticism of the author specifically than any argument you're trying to make, Pepe, the fact that more soldiers have committed suicide (in the one year he cites anyhow) than have died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn't prove anything about the supposed worsened mental state of our military. It may in fact speak more to the "efficiency" of the US war machine than it does to anything else. The stronger argument, which the author touches on but does not emphasize is that the suicide rate of the military in relation to the population at large has increased dramatically since 2001.

Pepe Silvia

MotoDC wrote:

Pepe Silvia wrote:

so are you changing your argument now?

That's a bit of a stretch. What he did was clarify it. The author's basic premise, in order of causation is: Empire Pathology --> Injust War --> Soldier Suicide.

he still stands skipped the middle step in his first argument and then included it in his second. Hardly a full-blown change in argument. The point still remains that the author is extrapolating out an assumption (about why these poor men and women are taking their own lives) in order to further his own agenda vis a vis America as the Evil Empire.

And as a secondary point that is more a criticism of the author specifically than any argument you're trying to make, Pepe, the fact that more soldiers have committed suicide (in the one year he cites anyhow) than have died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq doesn't prove anything about the supposed worsened mental state of our military. It may in fact speak more to the "efficiency" of the US war machine than it does to anything else. The stronger argument, which the author touches on but does not emphasize is that the suicide rate of the military in relation to the population at large has increased dramatically since 2001.

actually that's the definition of changing their argument. that is not their argument. they didn't say 'Empire Pathology --> Injust War --> Soldier Suicide' one said "These men and women are not killing themselves because they see america as a "crumbling empire" and this author should be ashamed of himself."

those two arguments are completely different.

the government doesn't give a fuck about the troops, they make that clear over and over again.

you guys really go for the oversensationalizations don't ya? he's not saying they are killing themselves because it is an evil or crumbling empire.