16 August 2012, the United States Army says the suicide rate for active duty, reserve and National Guard troops has now surpassed the 2011 high. July 2012 suffered 38 suicides, double from the month of June 2012!  That’s more than one soldier per day!!!

The monthly average is now at 29 suicides.  2011 ended with an average of 23 suicides per month.

The majority of suicides are those troops with combat experience. July was also a record high for active duty troop suicides.

In June dumb ass Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said: “That is an epidemic, something’s wrong.”

No shit Sherlock!  It’s called unjustified War on Terror, police stateism, economy down the toilet!

Things are so bad that earlier in the year the Idaho National Guard demanded that the state re-open a closed suicide hot line (the patriotic Republican state leaders closed it down claiming a lack of funding)!

General Lloyd J. Austin III gave the same bull shit comment I’ve always heard about preventing suicide: “To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills.”

I’ve heard that rhetoric since the 1980s!  What they really want are troops that are like the compliant monkeys of Japan: Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

But the more our leaders (Republicans, Democrats, religious & unAmerican Corporate America) betray our Constitution, screw over the families of troops by destroying the economy, ship jobs overseas, use prison labor instead of law abiding workers, religious hypocrisy, etc, the more those who join the military to supposedly fight for the American Dream are going to become disillusioned and turn to suicide, or something else (remember Bronze Star awardee Timothy McVeigh?)!