Suicide kills more soldiers than Afghanistan war in 2012
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2012 MILITARY SUICIDES HIT RECORD HIGH OF 349
BY ROBERT BURNS
AP NATIONAL SECURITY WRITER
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Associated Press has learned that suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year.
That far exceeds the 295 American combat deaths in Afghanistan in 2012 and compares with 301 military suicides in 2011.
Some private experts predict that the trend will worsen this year.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called military suicides an epidemic.
The Army had the highest number of suicides among active-duty troops last year at 182, but the Marine Corps had the largest percentage increase - up 50 percent to 48.
The Air Force recorded 59 suicides and the Navy had 60.
BY ROBERT BURNS
AP NATIONAL SECURITY WRITER
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Associated Press has learned that suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year.
That far exceeds the 295 American combat deaths in Afghanistan in 2012 and compares with 301 military suicides in 2011.
Some private experts predict that the trend will worsen this year.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called military suicides an epidemic.
The Army had the highest number of suicides among active-duty troops last year at 182, but the Marine Corps had the largest percentage increase - up 50 percent to 48.
The Air Force recorded 59 suicides and the Navy had 60.
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
This needs to get a lot more attention than it is.
its really a shame. Did you see that doc that Ed did the song for? Body of War?
There was a veteran form the vietnam war and Thomas form the IRaq war...they both had the same injuries and the guy from back in Nam got tons of more medical attention decades ago...how have we gone backwards?
Ed talked about this during the Ft.Lauderdale show: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
I didn't, I have meant to though. I will check it out soon.
There was a good segement on 60 minutes recently about a judge who is trying to help veterans who come back and get into trouble rather than just lock them up. It was a great approach.
If they are certain they are "fighting for our freedom" they should be proud.
bam. no more war.
heh heh heh. I like that
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
Quick (and probably not completely accurate) numbers.
Suicide rate in the US is 12 per every 100,000 in 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate
Number of active personel in the armed forces: 1,456,862
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces
So, 1,456,862/100,000 = 14.57
14.57 x 12 = 174.84 (number of suicides if you combine US suicide rate with number in military)
Last year's number of active duty suicides is almost exactly double (359) of what the "normal" rate would be.
Did I do the math right? Not my strong suit lol
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I think I get what you are doing, I would have done it like this though:
(349/4,456,862)*100,000= 23.69 suicides per 100,000. It is a significantly higher number, and considering it took like 5 minutes to figure out I am surprised it wasn't included in the story. Seems like lazy journalism to me.
Although even comparing those two numbers doesn't give you the full picture. I mean the 12 number for the US population takes into account everyone. Probably not a lot of infants or toddlers or even very many young kids committing suicide (the number for senior citizens are probably lower than average too). So all of those numbers are going to skew the results to make it lower. It would be interesting to see how the military number compares to a number for adults not in the military that are of the age where they could be serving in the military. That would be a more accurate comparison since the rate for the general population would most likely go up.
Also with regards to the military number I would be curious to find out the percentage of those 349 people were actually served in war zones, and how many of them have never left the US. But again not looking at this kind of thing just seems like a reporter being lazy. I mean just because you are a member of the military and you killed yourself, doesn't mean you killed yourself because of your job.
Yeah, there are so many missing pieces that could help paint a clearer picture.
One thing I did notice was that the 349 was only "active duty". I would be interested to know the number and suicide rate of soldiers who spent time in combat who have since been returned to the reserves or have been discharged. You seem to hear a lot of those stories of people who commit suicide after coming home and trying to go back to "normal" life.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
we have a whole generation of our young people who are affected by this war and occupation and they will be dealing with it for the rest of their lives... so many hundreds of thousands of cases of ptsd and depression, and more than that unreported. so many suicides. and this is still going on a year and a half after bin laden's death.
how sad.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
He absolutely won, between ^^^, Patroit Act, T.S.A., Guantanamo Bay, Etc... the sad part is how easy it was for him to tear us apart, well we did most of it to ourselves. Changed us forever.
But changing us forever was not his goal. We are still here. These suicides are a tragedy but they are not evidence that Bin Laden "won".
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
He definitely threw a monkeywrench in our plans.