Dept of Army Suicide
and Immigration:
General Freakley
finds himself unmanned
Ed Note: See comments below to follow the horrible story of escalating veteran suicides across time.
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From the Times:
“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army.
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General Freakley went on to unveil a new citizenship program that fast-tracks foreigners who speak particular languages. Green Card to Passport in six months.
Seem to recall some Caeser doing something like this.
Guess they must be running out of peeps — oh. Oh my.
Still, a bit odd. Army Recruitment handing out passports. Thought the State Department did that. And Immigration the whole naturalization thing …
And I seem to recall Secretary of State Clinton making a particular point, during her first address from Foggy Bottom, of reclaiming turf and powers lost across recent years to the Pentag–
Hey! You can’t –! Where are my Switzers?! Stop that! General Freakley, who’s in charge here?! You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!!!
Dr Strangelove, I presume?
Who’s the gadfly?
Further developments.
ed says:
Unfortunately it seems the militarism and megalomania of Bush-Cheney will prosper in the Obamarama.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
ed says:
The Army’s suicide problem seems to be getting worse.
Army and Agency Will Study Rising Suicide Rate Among Soldiers
By Lizette Alvarez, October 29, 2008
Conceding it needed outside help in figuring out why the suicide rate among service members was rising, the Army announced plans on Wednesday to collaborate with the National Institute of Mental Health in an ambitious five-year project to identify the causes and risk factors of suicide.
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ARMY REPORTS ALARMING SPIKE IN SUICIDES
by Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press, 02/05/2009
WASHINGTON – The Army is investigating an unexplained and stunning spike in suicides in January. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths reported last month by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the fight against terrorism.
“In January, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaida,” said Paul Rieckhoff, director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He urged “bold and immediate action” by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
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ARMY’S VICE CHIEF TACKLES SUICIDES
Chiarelli visits Fort Campbell as part of 8-day fact-finding tour
By ANN WALLACE, The Leaf-Chronicle, March 27, 2009
Suicides among active-duty U.S. Army personnel have steadily increased during the last four years, and locally, 10 suspected soldier suicides since the first of the year are currently under investigation at Fort Campbell.
ARMY CITES PROGRESS AGAINST SUICIDES
By Sarah M. Rivette, Times Staff Writer, Wed April 1, 2009
FORT DRUM — After eight days and six Army installations, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff, said he has a clearer picture of the “very complicated issue” of suicides in the Army.
“We are definitely tuned to the problem,” he said Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield. “We’ve got to step up to see what we can do and come up with innovative ways to see what additional resources we can provide.”
In 2008, a record high number of soldiers took their own lives. The Army recorded 143 suicides, a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers. That number exceeds the civilian rate of 19 people per 100,000 recorded in 2006 and the Marine Corps rate of 19 per 100,000 in 2008.
The number of suicides has steadily increased since 2006.
April 11th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
ed says:
Fast forward to August 2009 and the Times has a front-page feature story re high suicide rates among Iraq veterans.
Horrible and horribly sad.
Our all-volunteer army is an army of the poor. It’s horrible to imagine and then hear on TV the pride in the parents’ voices as they bless their sons’ decisions to Serve.
Too much Forrest Gump. We went to Iraq to Serve Israel. We went to Afghanistan to Serve Unocal.
Our state governors should refuse to release national guard troops to the feds. It would lead to a supreme court decision. The discourse if nothing else would be instructive.
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
ed says:
Army announces plan to combat spiking suicides:
Mental Stress Training. MST.
Not to be confused with EST. Or …?
From the Times:
The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
… the methods seek to defuse or expose common habits of thinking and flawed beliefs that can lead to anger and frustration — for example, the tendency to assume the worst.
(“My wife didn’t answer the phone; she must be with someone else.”)
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army’s chief of staff, said the $117 million program was an effort to transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness.
“I’m still not sure that our culture is ready to accept this,” General Casey said. “That’s what I worry about most.”
… at an early training session here last week, General Casey asked a group of sergeants what they thought of the new training. Did it seem too touchy-feely?
“I believe so, sir,” said one, standing to address the general.
He said a formal class would be a hard sell to a young private “who all he wants to do is hang out with his buddies and drink beer.”
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Combined with the recent story about GI Jane getting combat duty …
And the shocking (what did I know) report that the US now supplies two-thirds of the world’s weapons …
America the beautiful? Land of the free and home of the brave?
The working class has been lobotomized. Very dangerous for all of us. Armies destroy countries, often their own, and lobotomies are pretty much a prerequisite.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
ed says:
Amy Goodman at Democracy Now follows up on Army suicides:
October 28th, 2009 at 10:53 am
ed says:
Another chapter in Army insanity …
An Army psychiatrist, distraught over pending deployment to Iraq, goes on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, killing at least twelve …
The Times quickly reports that Dr Hasan — who is now said to be alive and stable despite having been shot several times — was “mortified” by prospect of going to Iraq, having counseled so many broken veterans.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Ed says:
January 2010. More deaths by suicide (24) than in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/01/military-suicides/
March 9th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Ed says:
April 2010 — and The Army Times reports that 950 soldiers attempt suicide each month.
Obama’s Secretary of Education is the asshole who turned five public schools in Chicago into military academies. For the underprivileged. Educate the poor? More efficient to turn them into cannon fodder instead?
The society — leadership and body — has bought the Likud Lobby vision of international affairs: perpetual war. Obama is doing nothing to turn off what Bush-Cheney set in motion.
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
ed says:
People complaining the Army is handing out enough Medal of Honors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30medals-t.html?ref=magazine
May 30th, 2010 at 9:14 pm