Injured Hearts, Injured Minds

People have a choice. The first one should be "Don't enlist in the military."

Video supplement to Injured Hearts, Injured Minds, from The Texas Observer.

The soldier in the video took Zoloft out on a mission resulting in suicidal thoughts. He was talked 'down' and made it back. Many others are not so lucky.

There have been 96 reported active-duty Army suicides during the period Jan. 1, 2009 – July 31, 2009. Of these, 62 have been confirmed, and 34 are pending determination of manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 79 suicides among active-duty soldiers.

During July 2009, among reserve component soldiers not on active duty, there were four potential suicides. During the period Jan. 1, 2009 – July 31, 2009, among that same group, there have been 17 confirmed suicides and 28 potential suicides; the potential suicides are currently under investigation to determine the manner of death. For the same period in 2008, there were 32 suicides among reserve soldiers not on active duty. {source - DoD News}

See:

Suicide After Combat

Hope's gone AWOL in Echo platoon

Study prescriptions - suicide link

Most Americans don't actually give a damn about soldiers that die, either in war or by their own hand. The military doesn't either except for some occasional bad publicity. The war machine is only interested in some form of profit.

Parents, kids...there should only be one word to the military death recruiters....NO!