Why does nobody want to talk about the REAL reason behind military suicides?

Heh, that reminded me that I had to show a Commo SGT how to operate his own radio! Hilarious!

 

And your notion that is is total hogwash consist of what other than your own misinformation. I agree whole heartedly that between Rumsfeld and our idiot ambassador the operation was completely botched. That does not change the fact that strategically those fifty K troops would be needed in Afghanistan.

 

I think you're wrong, Military personnel are not killing themselves because they don't like military life. Much of the military comes from an age group which already has the highest rates of suicide.

But military life doesn't have to suck if you pick the right MOS. I'm guessing you didn't.

 

This is stupid to say.

We are not a nation accustomed to continuous war at the levels we've seen in the last 15 years. Our military should not be stretched so thin, in general.

 

Johnny what are yout alkign about you are safer in the military in Afghanistan that you are on some street corners in DC or Detroit. This is not a high level conflict. Though it is likely to become one when we leave...

 

Actually I did, but isn't that the problem? You basically have to get lucky in order to not have the urge to kill yourself.

 

Restrictive rules of engagement are demoralizing.

 

That's not an honorable discharge, dude. That was a Section 8.

 

Statistics don't give a good picture of what it is like. The bases in Afghanistan are still getting shelled quite often. We are still encountering IEDs and even open attacks. We don't see many casualties because our equipment reduces the damage and our medical care is very fast, but there is still plenty of frightening and life-threatening things going on. You are safer in Afghanistan, not necessarily because you are less likely to be attacked, but because you are more likely to survive the attack.

 

There are plenty of frightening and life threatening things going on in some precincts in Detrit and DC and no one has any equipment or training to help them deal with it. I did my 11 months in Vietnam. I've come closer to being killed in the US on three different occasions not including vehicle incidents. And your MOS isn't luck it's choice.

 

BS. People choose their MOS based on what they read, or are told. There is no way to no what you will be doing until you do it, and every MOS as different aspects that place you in different situations. You should know this..

 

And they should have been in Afghanistan where the actual enemy was.

 

Are you proposing to get rid of the military altogether? That's incredibly dumb idea.

 

I have been attacked with lethal intent twice in my life, once in Libya and once in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I think the one in NC pissed me off the most, because it was KuKluxKrap shooting at me. At least the Libyan bomber had some justification.

Seeing that you are on a fool's errand, of course, will eventually have an adverse effect on how you view your life.

I have spent a lot of time listening to veterans of various conflicts. I think the two most damaging, in so far as it effects people's outlook on life, were Vietnam and Iraq.

At least they have some idea why they are in Afghanistan.

 

Getting rid of it? No. Shirking it, and cutting the billions of dollars wasted on it almost everyday? Hell yes.

 

You aught to have put that in the OP rather than just saying "screw the military" then. Then again I guess it pointless to spend your time articulating something to which a large percentage of people on this site will reply with something that would lead you to believe they are unfit to sustain a normal civil conversation. I agree the military budget is messed up, even top military people think so.

 

A lot of what iAwesome wrote is accurate.

I spent 6 years in a US Army infantry unit, and there were times when it sucked major ass.

However, I made some great friends and I did have a lot of fun, especially in training.

IMO, the worst part about military service is the sorry ass government that sends our military to unjust wars like Iraq.

It's terribly sad to know that some of my friends as well as many others were killed or severely wounded fighting in a war based on false intelligence.

 

You're argument seems to be because Army life sucks, people kill themselves.

If that's the case, have suicides always been abnormally high, whether during war or peacetime? Frankly I had a lot of fun, made great friends, and enjoyed the mission. But military life still sucked. But it always has and stateside, living conditions have never been better for the active military. I think you are internalizing your particular situation and projecting it on the entire military.

 

Lefty we couldn't move those 50k to Afghanistan while Saddam was still a hop skip and a jump from Saudi and Kuwaiti, with a 90k army. The Saudis and Kuwaitis simply don't have enough frces to deal wit Saddam on their own.

 

If we left the Middle East and had a non interventionist foreign policy, we wouldn't have a terrorism problem

 

Europe has been dealing with more terrorist incidents than we have. Are they too interventionist as well?

 

Yes, they are.