On Tuesday evening we had a soldier commit suicide

[Solly Mack]

Back from "down-range" (Iraq) for less than a month, he was getting ready to leave this post.

He swallowed several different kinds of pills.

We don't know why as of yet.

They found his body early Wednesday morning.

He was young.

Now he's dead and dead is forever.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

How horrifying...

My condolences to his family....

And to our country...

For we are complicit in his death too...

I weep for all the lost ones from this immoral, illegal war...

How many more?

[Solly Mack]

8. Thank you,CaliforniaPeggy

How many more indeed :(

[hobbit709]

1. One more in a long list

of why that bastard and his cohorts need to be removed from office.
I feel for his family and friends.

[Solly Mack]

9. I agree

[rasputin1952]

2. So very sad...the casualties of this war go far beyond those killed

and injured on the fields of battle...:(

[Solly Mack]

10. They sure do

[ORDagnabbit]

3. I'm very sad to hear that... my friend and ex student

also back from Iraq committed suicide...she was 29. :(

[Solly Mack]

5. I'm so sorry, ORDagnabbit

:hug:

[Cha]

4. Poor things!

I can't even imagine the horrors of seeing bodies blown up and your friends getting killed and maimed all around you. Then coming home..the freakin' mind can only take so much.

[Solly Mack]

13. You speak true...the mind can only take so much

We may never know why he did it either....the only one that does know is now dead.

[TayTay]

6. Solly, I am so sorry for this horrible loss

My prayers are with his family and with you and the other people who knew him and who will mourn most closely this awful loss.

:cry:

[Solly Mack]

7. Thank you, TayTay

:hug:

[TayTay]

18. Solly, is there anything we can do?

Any possible thing that can be done (or sent) to help the other good people in your post to deal with this terrible tragedy? (You can PM if yu like.)

I wish there was something I could do, in some small way, to send something or do something that says that this young man will be remembered.

Thanks and God Bless!

:hug: right back at ya!

[Solly Mack]

22. I'll find out more and let you know. It will be later this week

Thank you for such a kind offer!!!

[TayTay]

24. Thank you sir!

And it is the very least that I, who have not been asked to sacrifice at all for this horrible war, can do.

Solly, I have a 20 year old son. It's his face I see when I read posts like this. I'm sure my kid and this kid were not all that different.

[Solly Mack]

26. Not a sir :o)

:hug:

I know it brings you greater pain to see your son's face when you read things like this but it is because you can see his face in the stories of others that speaks of what a caring person you are...

Thank you again.

[TayTay]

52. No offense intended

I was thinking of it more as an expression.

Sorry.

[Solly Mack]

53. Wasn't offended :)

No need to be sorry.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Very very sad.

This is something that I expect to see replayed over and over again.
Humans are NOT meant to torture and kill, rinse and repeat, over and over.
Prayers to his family and their loss attributed to this illegal war.

[Solly Mack]

14. Yes - more to come

thanks to Bush

[ikojo]

12. May his pain now be over.

May he find the peace he had lost thanks to Bush's war of choice.

:cry:

My condolences to his family and friends who must now be asking why.

[Solly Mack]

15. Thank you,ikojo

for your words

[BeHereNow]

16. I REALLY hesitated to click on this thread... I can't stand it any more.

I feel like I am slipping over the edge.
NONE of these deaths can be justified by anyone, anywhere.

The depth of insanity that has gripped the world
in unbearable to fathom.

God help his grieving loved ones.

God, are you still there?

BHN

[Solly Mack]

17. I know how you feel, BHN

We're being pummeled with death and destruction

:hug:

[BeHereNow]

19. I work in a high school, the recruiters skank around the campus at lunch...

So many of my kids have NO hope of a future.
This morning I heard a teacher on the radio
talking about one of her former students
who recently died in the FUBAR cluster fuck of a war.
Everything she said applied to my kids.
They are KIDS for Christ's sake!
Their lives haven't even begun!
WHEN the FUCK are the people in this country
going to say "ENOUGH" of this slaughter??????


I can no longer stand the thought of any of these kids,
Iraqi or American, dying for the hideous men behind the curtain.

BHN
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Solly Mack]

27. Recruiters really tick me off

and to hear Bush and his ilk speak of heros and sacrifices and how grateful they are..all said about the dead in such senseless wars...I just want to scream.

[Madspirit]

20. I am sorry Solly...K&R

I wonder what the suicide rate is for returned soldiers. I know it was sky high after Viet Nam.
Lee

[Solly Mack]

23. Thank you, Madspirit

We've had several over the last few years on this post alone.

Both soldiers and spouses.

[Morgana LaFey]

43. well, and then there were those protracted, drawn out suicides --

drug and alcohol addiction.

[Solly Mack]

45. Yes

so true

[Madspirit]

58. ....and

Exactly Morgana...and a lot of the older homeless are Viet Nam vets. : <
Lee

[blues90]

21. Very sad , very sad . This is the most important post of the day .

It's this mad war and all the needless death that is what should be in the forefront of the news and topics .

[Solly Mack]

25. Thank you for your words,blues90

the senseless deaths caused by that criminal in the Whitehouse adds great sorrow to a world already staggering from a host of injustices and outrages...they all deserve our attention and it's enough to drive a person insane.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

28. K&R...

[Disturbed]

29. For someone to take away their own life must mean

that they couldn't stand being alive any longer. It is hard to imagine what level of pain this person was in to do so. It is indeed a sad and perplexing situation. It must be really devastating to his family and friends.

[Solly Mack]

34. You said it all

Thank you

[TacticalPeek]

30. Sorry.

A Poem That I Wrote In A High Fever

You who are lengthening your lives
with the best doctors and the best medicines
remember those who are shortening their lives
with the wars
that you in your long lives are not
preventing.

You who are again screwing
the younger generations
and winking at each other
the winking of your eyelids
is like the chill of the swinging shutters
in an empty house.


-- Yehuda Amichai

[Solly Mack]

35. Thank you!

Great poem

[CrazyOrangeCat]

39. Tremendous poem.

Thanks.

May this poor soul rest now.

This didn't have to be, tho.

To the Hague with the Masters of War.

[wicket]

31. Oh dear God

Prayers for his loved ones :cry: :cry:

[Solly Mack]

36. Thank you, wicket

:hug:

it has to stop...it must stop

[lonestarnot]

32. Is not.

[midnight]

33. This young soldier probably signed up to help out the other

soldiers battle the horror over there, and realized there was no way out. Bring them home.

[Solly Mack]

37. Yes, bring them home

Now

[Rex]

38. I'm sorry to hear that Solly Mack.

Dam, that is just heartbreaking. :(

[Solly Mack]

40. Hey Rex

Yeah it is...I just cried and cried when I found out. Couldn't stop..tears flowing long before the telling was finished.

It's selfish of me I know, but I had hoped as a nation that we knew better...that we had learned from the past. I know we're just a small part of a much larger and ever expanding timeline of history but I keep thinking...no, I keep hoping...we'd do better.

[Rex]

57. I hear ya, we can only hope and try to do good in the world.

Everyone else can do what they want and the wrong ones are calling all the shots, everywhere around the world. Dam near most. Not selfish at all...crying is good for people. Just as important as laughing at times.

I've had a troubling experience in the Army and still can't resolve it in my mind. Caused me to get out right before Clinton left office. Best decision I ever made. I feel horrible for everyone who dies in uniform serving in this Godforsaken War. They all deserve better.

Hugs to you :hug:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

41. the Masters of War

must be brought to their knees.

[Solly Mack]

48. I'd like to see'em imprisoned for life, stripped of their wealth

and power and then stigmatized beyond redemption...

[alarimer]

42. They keep sending people back to Iraq with serious mental illnesses

and this will keep happening. There was a piece on this on Democracy Now I think. The military also lies about the number of suicides by lumping them in with "Non-combat related deaths", which is also criminal.

[Solly Mack]

47. Yep..sure will

[Morgana LaFey]

44. So very sorry

it just shouldn't happen. None of it. My sympathies to EVERYONE touched by this tragedy.

[Solly Mack]

46. That's what bothers me the most

"it just shouldn't happen"

There was no reason for any of this...none.

[Morgana LaFey]

54. I know. I think that's called "senseless."

It's all so miserably, heartbreakingly SENSELESS.

And what bothers me is that almost all of this nation wants the war OVER and yet the deaths go on. Talk about SENSELESS. It angers me so much.

[blues90]

49. Just one death like this has an extending effect

Not only do the families and friends suffer the loss of the dead troop whether it is by a bomb or suicide or any other horrid means . They may even lose another family member due to grief .

I recall a few months back a post on DU where the youg wife on a troop who was murdered in Iraq took her own life because of the loss .

[tnlefty]

50. I have no words.

I just feel an urge to hurl. Young, we've had National Guardsmen in their 50's and 60's dead in my state. That is painful, but when I see the lists of the ones listed in age:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23... it just kills a bit of my spirit. I remember what is was like to be that age even though it's been a looooong time for me, but DAMN, their lives were ended before they really began.

I'm so sorry for him, his family and for you.

[Solly Mack]

51. it's beyond tragic

to know he made it out of a combat zone...only to have to hear this...I can't imagine what his family is feeling now.

[merh]

55. Not.In.My.Name.

:cry:

[mopinko]

56. war, the gift that keeps on giving.

pandora's box.