Terrible Fact

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

More U.S. soldiers and veterans have died from suicide than from combat wounds over the past two years. (Source)

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3 Responses to Terrible Fact

  1. Vic says:
    August 15, 2011 at 9:14 am

    Historically, suicide rates in the armed forces is generally significantly lower than in the civilian population. Even the recent near doubling of suicide rates in some areas of the military has not pushed the rate much above the usual civilian rate for their demographic. Unfortunately, with suicide a pretty much a solid first leading cause of death among white males ages 18-24…

  2. Michael says:
    August 15, 2011 at 9:17 am

    That is so callous.

  3. vic says:
    August 15, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    I wasn’t being callous at all. I think it’s terrible that ANYBODY feels so compelled and lost that they chose that path. I was merely pointing out that this is actually a change for the worse, since NORMALLY, even during wartime in the last few years, the suicide rates of service members is less than the demographic equivalent in civilian society (remember these other stories?). Now, just as YOU pointed out, something has changed and the reverse is true. Some have conjectured (I was already aware of this story) that since they generally belong to a demographic that parallels the most suicide-prone civilian demographic that maybe whatever causes such results in civilians is now taking more of a toll on service members. That’s terrible and unprecedented.

    I’m honestly not sure why you think I was being callous. I think you just like to presume the worst from me at all times.

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