Say Anything Blog

It’s the beginning of a new year, so I guess it’s time for the media to start hyping military suicides again.

WASHINGTON — The Army is investigating a stunning number of suicides in January — a count that could surpass all combat deaths on America’s two warfronts last month.

According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were 24 suspected suicides in January, compared to only four in January of 2008, six in January of 2007 and 10 in January of 2006.

Yearly suicides have been rising steadily since 2004 amid increasing stress on the force from long and repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The service has rarely, if ever, released a month-by-month update on suicides, but officials said Thursday that they wanted to re-emphasize “the urgency and seriousness necessary for preventive action at all levels” of the force.

Not to minimize the troubling reality of suicides among any demographic of our population, but this breathless reporting and immediate leap to the conclusion that it’s all being caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is just plain stupid.

First off, the idea that suicides in January surpassed combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t a commentary on a marginal increase in suicides but rather the plummeting violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Casualties in the war zone are way, way, way down (no thanks to Obama and the Democrats), so making a comparison between suicides and war zone casualties is more than a little facetious.

Second, while you can say that suicide rates more than doubled in January compared to previous years, we’re talking about just 14 additional suicides.  One is too many, but we’re talking about dozens of cases out of millions of men and women who are in the military.  The numbers are so tiny that just a few suicides more or less can make a big difference int he numbers.

Third, might there be some reason besides the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that might have some of these military people choosing suicide?  I know the media jumps to that conclusion because it fits perfectly with the liberal, anti-war narrative they want to promote, but let’s think for a minute.  What else is going on in the world that might be making people miserable?

A recession, maybe?  People losing their investments?  People having their homes foreclosed on?  Families losing their jobs?

We know that the military demographic, being heavily skewed toward younger males, is generally more prone to suicide than the population in general because young males in general are more prone to suicide.  Add in the economic down turn, and suddenly a spike in suicides in January is, well, explainable.  If still a rather grim reality.

And there could be other explanations besides the wars for the upward trend of suicides in general.  Recruitment efforts have been ramped up over the last few years, which means more people in the military.  More people means more suicides, unfortunately.  And the truth is that suicide rates have actually gone down from Clinton-era levels during the Bush administration.

I’m glad that the Army is investigating this even if the total number of suicides is a really, really small number.  But the media’s distortion of the reality of this situation, and their breathless sensationalism, is just plain shameful.