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A tragedy sweeping the USA

It scarcely gains publicity but a tragic fall-out from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is the high-level of suicides in the military - an astounding average of one a day at the moment.   In fact, suicides in the US exceed the number of murders across the country.

"It’s been said before, but it’s worth saying again.  The best reason we have for leaving Afghanistan is that the war can’t be won.  Indeed, this war (the longest in our history) is so clearly unwinnable, military strategists can’t even come up with a fantasy scenario for its resolution.  And when you can’t fake a happy ending—when you can’t even come up with a sugar-coated denouement—you know it’s time to piss on the campfire and call in the dogs.

One obstacle to ending the war is that our congressional “doves” are indistinguishable from our congressional “hawks.”  In fact, we have no doves, only varying gradations of hawks.  Another obstacle is President Obama himself.  The case can be made that Obama’s war record is no different than what we would’ve seen had Dick Cheney been president.  Granted, Cheney might have launched a few more drones, tortured a few more pilgrims, and revoked a few more state-side civil liberties, but Obama’s policies (Libya included) have been positively Cheneyesque.

But you hear another reason for us leaving Afghanistan.  You hear people say we should end the war because of the alarming number of suicides (averaging almost one a day) among American troops.  Not to trivialize or in any way diminish the tragedy of American soldiers taking their own lives, but suicides should have no bearing on this.  You either have a justifiable, sustainable reason for fighting a war, or you don’t.

Actually, our national suicide statistics are surprising.  In fact, they’re shocking.  The U.S. appears to be in the midst of what might be called a “suicide epidemic.”  And we’re speaking of civilians, not military personnel.  Just look at the numbers.  There are almost twice as many suicides each year in the U.S. as there are murders.  It’s true.  Interestingly, the demographic with the most suicides are white males, and the demographic with the fewest are African American females".


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