Record Number Of Soldiers Commit Suicide

It's no secret that the war in Afghanistan (or rather the misguided nation-building effort in Afghanistan) is not going too well. When the American soldiers "pacify" an area and move on to another area to do the same, those we are fighting move back in and take over again and nothing has been accomplished. And while this futile merry-go-round is happening the American deaths continue to rise, standing now at about 1100 (not to mention the thousands of deaths of innocent civilians in both Afghanistan and Pakistan).

It is a fact that June of 2010 set a record for the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan (with 60 soldiers being killed) for any month in the nine year history of the war. But that is not the only death record that can be attributed to the effects of the endless war (in both Afghanistan and Iraq). June was also "the worst month ever for suicides in the Army", according to a report by CBS News. At least 32 soldiers, both active and reserves, killed themselves in the month of June.

In the first six months of 2010 a total of 145 soldiers committed suicide -- a record for times of both war and peace. That is an increase of more than 11.5% over the same period last year, which had 130 suicides by soldiers -- also a record at that time. This is a serious problem that seems to be getting out of hand.

To try and get a handle on the situation, the Army is changing the way it is trying to combat the growing problem. The Army has been using actors in the anti-suicide films it shows it's personnel, and they now admit that the soldiers consider these films to be a joke. They have now replaced these films with films of real soldiers who have tried to commit suicide, in the hopes that these messages from real soldiers will have more effect on soldiers considering suicide.

I hope that does help. But we all know that the only thing that'll really help is to end the senseless and endless wars foisted on us by Bush and Cheney (and continued by the current administration). The other day the Army Chief of Staff said we could be looking at another decade of war. What's that going to do to the number of dead soldiers -- both battle-related and suicides?