Military Suicides: For the Second Year in a Row

The Military now is long over stressed, serving a Nation, while occupying others, that shows no concern for it's well being as well as the combat veterans it's producing! End these occupations and implement a 'War Tax' on the citizens so they finally 'Sacrifice', to care for our brothers and sisters. Not another DeJa-Vu of ours Vietnam!!

More troops lost to suicide

For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reasons are complicated and the accounting uncertain — for instance, should returning soldiers who take their own lives after being mustered out be included?

But the suicide rate is a further indication of the stress that military personnel live under after nearly a decade of war.

Figures released by the armed services last week showed an alarming increase in suicides in 2010, but those figures leave out some categories.

Overall, the services reported 434 suicides by personnel on active duty, significantly more than the 381 suicides by active-duty personnel reported in 2009. The 2010 total is below the 462 deaths in combat, excluding accidents and illness. In 2009, active-duty suicides exceeded deaths in battle.

Last week’s figures, though, understate the problem of military suicides because the services do not report the statistics uniformly. Several do so only reluctantly. {continued}