More soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012, new Department of Defense figures show. The Army’s suicide rate has climbed by 9 percent since the military branch launched its suicide-prevention campaign in 2009.
Through November, 177 active-duty soldiers had committed suicide compared to 165 during all of 2011 and 156 in 2010. In all of 2012, 176 soldiers were killed in action — all while serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, according to DOD.
One of the sad parts of the current conflicts is that we can now save more people through our hospitals than we can save through our mental health facilities. I say current conflicts because there is no declared war. It is that lack of declared war, that lack of clear definition that hurts our veterans. Like the Viet Nam conflict, this has never been a declared war. Frankly, when I was listening to the speech by President Bush to the Congress three days after 9/11, I expected him to ask for a declared war. But, he did not, and it was a grave mistake.
It was a grave mistake for two reasons. The first one is a moral one. There are few reasons more clear for a declaration of war than a direct attack on the homeland. But, President Bush and his advisors wanted to have the “freedom” to deal with what they encountered without the restrictions of the Geneva Convention. But, later events, from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib showed what happens when the restrictions of centuries are ignored. Inevitably human rights are violated, and excuses are manufactured as to why international human rights treaties are ignorable. Eventually, this decays to the point that even dictators, such as those in Syria, are able to use our own faulty reasoning to justify their clear violations of human rights.
But, the second reason for its being a mistake is the suicide rate listed above. We have a set of conflicts without a clear explanation as to why we are there and when that commitment ends. This is bad enough for us here, but it is horribly worse for those who have to serve in foreign countries, killing others and waiting to be killed. You see American soldiers are mostly moral, and they think morally.
And the major problem is that for an American soldier to kill or be killed, s/he needs to believe that they are doing what is moral. When there is no declared war, when there is no clear reason to why we are somewhere—regardless, of what Limbaugh, Beck, etc., say—, when there is no clear “leaving” strategy, then the morality of what you are involved in is called into question. And, when your morality is called into question, your internal moral compass is thrown into disarray. And when that happens …
No, America is built on Christian foundations. Many Christians insist on that. But, what we forget is that Christian foundations have consequences. And the consequences can be an unutterable sense of guilt that can lead to PTSD and other horrific results of our proclaiming our Christian roots while carrying out a realpolitik that ignores Christian morality in carrying out our non-war strategy.
We forget that the Geneva Conventions originally began as writings by Saint Augustine. When we ignore them, we ignore the writings of a saint. When we ignore them, we ignore apostolic tradition. When we ignore them, we should not be surprised at the evil results of our failure to declare war, our Guantanamos, and our Abu Ghraibs.
May God have mercy on us.
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