The sad cost of war
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/02suicide.html?hp

"The number of suicides reported by the Army has risen to the highest level since record-keeping began three decades ago. Last year, there were 192 among active-duty soldiers and soldiers on inactive reserve status, twice as many as in 2003, when the war began. (Five more suspected suicides are still being investigated.) This year’s figure is likely to be even higher: from January to mid-July, 129 suicides were confirmed or suspected, more than the number of American soldiers who died in combat during the same period."

Suicide rates are going up across the board over the last 30 yrs. All walks of life. It must seem an acceptable option to some people who are in a bad state of mind. It is an act of rage. A very close friend of mine did that. Not cool.

The market is up, the printer is up, the suicides are up, unemployment is up.

Change we can believe in.

It's been going on longer than that.

Meet the New Big Brother
 

Sickening

“I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/200...amendment.html

i'm used to wild swings in the conversation and i'm good with the free flow of internet conversations.

i just want to make sure everyone else is at my level and no one would object if i post some random pictures of an interesting rock, a map of ecuador, and my nephew here in the "military suicide" thread.

i'll also be discussing cool music i like.

let me know.

They want to know the false claims out there. It's not like they are gunna prosecute people for telling lies about health care. They just want to know what trash they've got to pick up. The party had a V.P. Candidate telling lies the whole 2nd half of the campaign(remember Palin said OBAMA was gunna raise taxes on people making all the way down to 150k...these are not people that are interested in truth....they just want their way.) Yesterday I saw some fat White Trash interrupt a Congressman when he said "let me tell you the facts."

White Trash Momma: "No!!"

(congressman keeps trying to talk)

White Trash Momma: ..Why?"

They aren't interested in communication. They are interested in simply disruption.

I did mess up and intended to make a new thread. But go ahead and post that interesting rock you have.

Very dictator like....:D

Yep. The trash that shows up disrupting these Town Hall Meetings does remind me of those thugs in Iran that get around on motorcycles.

Maybe Iran is where Obama got this crazy BIG BROTHER idea? He can't even release results of his own program (Cash for Clunkers rip-off) but wants citizens to report dissenters?

Oh, please. There are alot of lies being told, repeatedly and publically - yes, by Republicans - about what the health care reform bill involves. The White House is meeting all the false allegations head on.

The lies are pretty sickening, indeed. Threatening older people that they will have to choose to die, because there will not be health care for them? Nauseating.

Some are real people, some are being delivered to the Town Hall meetings with instructions on how to disrupt. The Dems are responding to this now by trying to spotlight it, as they did Palin and her more extreme wackjob followers.

Edit: I read somewhere that they might try restricting local town hall meetings to those that actually live in the District.

You're mischaracterizing - purposely? - what is being asked. There is no "big brother', there is no "report dissenters".

All you need to do is look at all the great success government has when it runs anything vs the private sector. Schools and the Post Office come immediately to mind. What's nauseating is watching a President talk of how all this preventative care will save money in between smoke breaks during which his obese nominee for surgeon general preaches the great cost obesity related illness has on all of us.

fowarding private emails on instructions from the White House of people opposed to the plan is Big Brother IMO and instead of calling those people supporters I used the word dissenters. Sorry I could have called them anti-socialist.

Then you'd better call the Republicans Big Brother, too, as they have mailed out instructions about how to disrupt Town Hall meetings and squash all discussion, who to attack personally and how, etc.

It's politics pure and simple, and it's gonna get pretty hot in the next few weeks on both sides.

And there were those little Constitutional pecadillos by Cheney and company ...

What schools does the federal government run? ( edit: West Point?)

Local governments? Let's see, clean potable water, sewer service, garbage pickup, police and fire protection, snow clearing from roads, and excellent schools in many locations - all little niceties that make life liveable.

Federal? Medicare, Pell grants, veterans hospitals, Centers for Disease Control ...

Funny I got no instructions and I'm a true blue Republcan. Can you post the instructions you got or are you just making this up?

Nobody said you were to get instruction personally.

Seriously, sometimes I worry about you ;)

Check out any politically-oriented website not FoxNews. Internal memos sent out by the GOP have been recently published, too.

Edit: and don't call yourself a true blue Republican, call yourself a red-blooded Republican <g>

From the (non-existent) U.S. Department of Education


ED currently administers a budget of $62.6 billion in regular FY 2009 discretionary appropriations and $96.8 billion in discretionary funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—and operates programs that touch on every area and level of education.

this is why moral people don't start wars on a whim.

other people pay the price.

wow some shocking things in there like having your question and followup prepared and to have facts regarding the Reps voting record. The thing that was outrageus was the instruction to leave protest signs outside if you want to be called on. Heavy, heavy stuff!!!

Good evening, Dellinger.

What are your thoughts on the initial subject of this thread, an extremely high suicide rate among our soldiers?

I don't think it's as easily dismissed as "Suicide rates are going up across the board over the last 30 yrs. All walks of life".

That isn't "running schools".

I'm extremely glad of my Clinton-initiated student loan availability (he made changes) that made it possible for me to attend professional school. Payed them back, gladly. US Dept of Ed. rocks. Website: piece of cake to make payments, apply for this and that, etc. Best customer service evah.

I think a good portion of troops and probably the majority signed on for reasons other than patriotism or just wantng to be a soilder. They wanted an education or specialized training in a trade. Very few signed on for a career in the military. IMO. When the realty hits they are being shipped off they can't handle the fear. Or while in war they need an easy way out.

Ultimately though I feel it's a disrespect of life that is fueling the increase of suicides across the board. That and selfishness for not thinking of the loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces.

your empathy is overwhelming.

you should think about starting your own needless war.

and this is why you became a Democrat? Or was it the Carter authored, anti-Semitic books you read? By the way Clinton gave you crap. Taxpayers made that loan available, Clinton just took the credit. And since the richest 10% pay the vast majority of taxes it is them you should thank.

Maybe allowing the troops to wear makeup would help? Think that was another brilliant Clinton idea. Maybe it's the fact the military wants to ban smoking while the Commander in Chief smokes?

i like the fact that you can twist a subject about people serving the country killing themselves into a bank shot about whatever obsessive thought enters your mind.

didn't al gore invent non-smoking gays in the military?

Sorry, Dell - I'm still an old-fashioned, conservative, business-oriented Republican.

You've never read a Carter-authored book, so I know you don't have any real clue as to his writings.

Clinton initiated the changes to the student loan program. Not the taxpayers (who got their money back from me, with interest). I didn't vote for him, but I had to thank him for that.

Regarding our soldiers. I don't know how the Gulf wars (the current) compare to Viet Nam regarding troop suicide. That was a terrible time, Viet Nam, watching people come home, changed. I thought I read somewhere that suicides started to increase in the Gulf as soldiers had their tours extended, again and again, with no end in sight; and were over there with no clear idea of what the hell they were fighting for.

I laughed.

God Bless our troops.

That's ill (defined.) I think you have your reason for a lot of these suicides (glorification of wealth, and an overall devaluation of the people that do the real work in a society.) Just look at these sporting events that a guy in the military might want to take his kid to. He did a real job so he could pay huge money for a very few to play a game (as a "job.") He's paying their tax. They sure aren't gunna make that money without ordinary people working hard to pay them.

This has very little to do with why people do or do not commit suicide. It is a rational act for those that do take their life - but to those left behind it is not rational.

PTSD is not understood by those who have never experienced it or have loved ones that live with it. It takes lots and lots of therapy to recover , but for many a a single bullet works to ease the pain and depression.

in an indirect way I was trying to point out the fact we had a Commander in Chief (Clinton) who loathed the military. Because he was so out of touch he actually thought giving everyone a beret and allowing makeup would strengthen moral.

It seems many on the left especially here are obsessed with hypocrisy when it involves republican extra marital affairs but not when an obese Dr. who is being considered for surgeon general is out preaching the effect obesity has on health care costs between hitting her feed bag and a President who is pushing for universal coverage in between smoke breaks. A TN state senator who no one outside of TN has ever heard of has an affair and its blasted, Clinton has an affair and it’s a private matter.

And Al Gore never invented anything except a scam to sell air.

OK now I agree

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...swastikas.html

He should quit smoking, and the Cow Doc should reduce.

Now, a one-word Turkish impression: "HAPPY?"
..with two words: "HAPPY NOW?"
....with three words: "ARE YOU HAPPY?"
....four words...Turkeyglue Special: "YOU GIVE ME CONFUSIONS."

So the it is now a good thing for the govt to develop a list of private citizens who oppose the sitting President by the current President? Is this America? Liberals arent supposed to go for this type of thing. Weren't you guys the ones that went crazy over the phone deal? What does the ACLU have to say about this?

The health care measures are so unsettled that you have a hard time figuring out what the hell they are let alone saying that you can identify lies about it.

The system we have isnt great, the govt system will be worse.

Yeah what do ya know? Professional protesters. Right out of the Acorn/liberal/antitrade/antiwar playbook.