Soldiers and suicides

[fpb]

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.

Comments

This is probably deliberate

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

If the population ever thinks about supporting a military coup they'ii take one look at the
Generals and stick with the devils they know.

You probably won't miss it but don't miss Tom Simon' s latest essay just posted on LJ.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Can you post this to FB so that I can LIKE it and share it a gazillion times?

(Also, may I point the nice crowd at therightfangirl here?)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It actually comes from a Share I did of an Italian-language article. See if you can do something with that.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As for that community, remember I would be a sad disappointment to many. I don't hate trades unions, for instance.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

http://www.facebook.com/notizie.libere - the most recent item. I'm one of the two sharers.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Consider the recent incidents where Afghans, including Afghan military, unprovokedly murdered US officers and men after the disposal of damaged Korans, and our response was to -- investigate the Koran-disposal, rather than retaliate against the Afghans. Right. Way to show the troops we care about them.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Don't know to what extent Obama is seriously worried about military coups, as there have been none in the history of the American Republic -- on the other hand, he might be worried about the possibility that in a Constitutional showdown between himself and the other two branches of government, the military would enforce the orders of the Congress and Courts over his own. Note his dismay when pretty much exactly that happened to Zelaya in Honduras, and his stubborn insistence that this was just a military coup.

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

Interesting insight about Zelayya. 

Both MacArthur and Smedley Butler were supposedly approached about fronting a coup against FDR in the early New Deal, and both refused.

There was a very tattered poorly typeset book about the Butler pseudo coup 
in the San Antonio library years ago. I browsed it and when I returned to look for it, it had vanished. From my brief browsing I did not at all get the impression that the author was a crank or conspiracy crackpot. Don't remember his name or even if the book listed it.

I don't see anything listed in the wiki sources that could conceivably be this book; the copy dated at least from the '50's and was possibly older.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

Our top leadership seem to be operating on an assumption of "they hate us because of something we are doing wrong, so if we can just stop doing it wrong, they'll stop hating us."

It's the same mindset that leads the parent to ask the kid who's being bullied, "What are you doing to invite the bullying?"

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

The VA system is very broken and the "wounded warrior" battalions are worse.
This subject strikes a little too close to home.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize you had military connections. As you can see, a lot of my online American friends have to do with the military, and I have heard stories. Whatever it is, you have my sympathy.