SUICIDE IS PAINLESS
AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THEY SAY
Death Wish Common In The Military
Especially the Marine Corps. We had two kids kill themselves when I was in boot camp, one from the series following us, one from ours. Don't know if they count suicides during basic training as active-duty suicides. There were several fairly suicidal types in my outfit, the whole time I was at my first duty station. No one killed himself. But there was always that air, of self-destruction and the death wish, present. And that was in garrison.
Suicide is romantic, to some people. Teenagers, especially, seem fascinated by it. The military provides them with a really romantic and adventurous way of killing themselves. Once they get in, they realize that they just have more reason for suicide: The boredom, the constant harassment, the stuff you really miss: Opportunities, freedom, female companionship. Especially in the Marines. Especially on deployment.
War provides the ultimate venue for suicide: Take a bad guy with you, be a hero, go out in a real blaze of glory. Get writ up in the hometown paper, maybe have the girl next door shed a tear for you. No way of knowing how many combat deaths are suicides, at least in part. The ones who ice themselves in garrison, or on Civvy Street are the only ones the military counts as suicides, normally.
Then there's the guys coming home from combat. The ones who've seen the horrors, close up. The ones who did terrible things. Things they can't forget. Things they can't live with, back in the real world. It doesn't help when everyone at home, from the President on down, is in denial about what war really is. Any war. Throw in a real lack of concern for the welfare of the troops, and the veterans, and you've got one more reason for suicide. But those don't count, either, once you're out of the military, in their body count. Not to them, any way.
"U.S. Marines Suffer Most Suicides in Five Years"
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posted by Cosa Nostradamus @ 12/22/2004 11:55:00 PM
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2 Comments:
These are excellent points you make. I wonder what the stats are nationally since the war began? On a slightly different thread, we've had 4 suicides between our middle school and high school in the last 7 months. One was a student in our grade, another child actualy did it at the school. I don't have the perspective to really say anything about trends that's valid, but the anecdotals around me reflect a grim picture.
Wow. Four young kids. That's horrible.
It's an increasingly violent and stupid world, where human life seems to mean less every day, and reason and caring about other people are in ever shorter supply.
The worst of it is, as long as the Republicans are in charge, things will get worse. And there will be no interest in promoting more sane behavior, or better mental health. When you take away people's options, you leave them only suicide, or murder/suicide. Look at the Middle East.
If our leaders choose violence as their first option, and for no reason, that opens the door. When people feel under threat, and out of control of their own lives, bad shit just keeps happening, and it proliferates. It cannot help but effect the children, too. Bush & Co. should think about that, sometimes. I doubt that they do.
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