fpb | Soldiers and suicides

An Italian news outlet informs me that the rate of suicides in the US army is up to one death per day, and that the Secretary for Defence, Panetta, is said to be very concerned.

Is this supposed to be surprising? The damned HQ treats soldiers as cannon fodder, issues them with impossible standing orders that clearly regard the lives of the enemy as more important than their own, tries them for no reason, and if they have survived all that, dumps them on the street with a VA system I heard one soldier describe as "broken". Why would any poor fool want to be a soldier? Soldiers, believe me, always know when the leadership cares for them. When they do, soldiers will go to Hell for them; when they don't, they just hang around waiting for a bullet. Well, think of the Fort Hood slaughter, and of the headquarters chair-warmer stating in public that the real tragedy would have been if "diversity" were endangered in the American armed forces. What kind of message does that give to the relatives, friends, and two million colleagues of the slaughtered victims? Obviously, that they don't matter. And they have to risk their lives under such conditions.. From what I have seen and heard, most generals in the US army ought to be demoted to buck private and given a taste of what they give their subordinates.