Military Suicides on Rise: More US Soldiers Killed Themselves than Died in Combat in 2012

[The Northerner]

DemocracyNow.org - More U.S. soldiers have died this year by taking their own lives than on the battlefield. The Pentagon says there have been at least 154 suicides among active-duty troops in 2012, a rate of nearly one each day. We're joined by three guests: Kevin Hines, who survived a jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and now counsels suicidal soldiers; Bonnie Carroll, co-chair of the Pentagon's Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide in the Armed Forces and president of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors; and journalist Aaron Glantz, author of the book "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans."

[Swede Atlanta]

1. That is an alarming statistic........

We should all be sobered by that number.....

I saw today where Panetta claims if the automatic cuts to the Pentagon go into effect next year it will mean chaos for military families and their need for medical care, etc.

No, Mr. Panetta, it won't. If you simply cancel 95% of the new weapons programs like that new submarine we do not need, everything will be okay. I suggest before you consider cutting the salary or benefits of a service member or their family, you and all the fat cats at the Pentagon, including the lobbyists that hand job you all all time, take a haircut.

This does not need to be on the backs of our military personnel. This should be on the backs of the military industrial complex of which Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us all those many years ago.

[jade3000]

2. Very alarming

The missions in these wars is too unclear/illegitimate to sustain morale. We need to get out.