By Matt Agorist
As bureaucratic fatcats sit back from their lush taxpayer-funded offices in giant marble buildings debating on whether or not to send more troops to the Middle East, a crisis is being ignored.
Last week, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its 2014 calendar year Suicide Event Report (DoDSER), which details the number of suicide attempts and deaths for U.S. service members.
The numbers are startling.
In all of 2014, a total of 55 US troops, in both hostile and non-hostile situations, lost their lives in foreign occupations. The number of soldiers who killed themselves is nearly 5 times that amount.
According to the DoD report, in 2014, there were 269 deaths by suicide among active component service members (compared to 259 deaths by suicide in 2013).
The leading cause of death for active duty military is not the foreign troops, it’s themselves.
To the ruling class in D.C., the words ‘troop’ or ‘soldier’ are synonymous with words like ‘tank,’ or ‘fixed wing aircraft,’ or ‘MRAP.’ They are merely numbers to be moved from here to there in a never ending battle for empire.
In war, human lives become units to be traded as a commodity to aid in the expansion of the state. When they are no longer deemed useful, these human lives are then tossed out like yesterday’s garbage.
Treating human beings in such a brutal and inhumane manner is not without consequence.
Not only are active duty soldiers tragically ending their own lives at an increasing rate, but once they finish their service, these numbers skyrocket.
In a 2012 report put out by the Veterans Administration, it was estimated that up to 22 veterans a day, kill themselves. That is 8,000 lives a year; almost one per hour.
If we look at attempted suicides, that number skyrockets to 19,000 attempts, of which 8,000 result in ending their own lives.
While there are a number of factors contributing to this increasing rate of suicides, the pink elephant in the room is war. War is the plight of mankind that is perpetually waged by cowards too afraid to send themselves or their own children into harm’s way, but who do not hesitate to send the poor or ‘patriotic.’
Our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and mothers and fathers are contracted by the state and used as cannon fodder for special interests and the expansion of imperialism. Those who refuse to join are enslaved into the ranks via conscription, and the rest of society calls those who fight this conscription, cowards.
When the state is done with its pawns of empire, it disposes of them like spent military gear. They then become unable to get the proper care they need for illness and injury related to their service. If they try to self-medicate to cope with the subsequent PTSD from being forced to brutally occupy a foreign country, these veterans have their children taken, face life in prison, or worse.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that nearly 50,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Another 140,000 are currently in jail, many of them for victimless crimes like drug possession.
As if the numbers aren’t bad enough, veterans are often the target of unjust attention from law enforcement. On multiple occasions, the Department of Homeland Security has referred to veterans as potential terrorists and noted that they pose a threat to national security.
The Free Thought Project has reported on case after case of veterans returning home only to be beaten and locked up for speaking out, or killed by police during a PTSD triggered episode.
So what is the solution? How can the US rein in this epidemic of suicide and homelessness among active duty troops and vets?
The answer to this question is simple — Stop creating them.
If you really want to “support the troops” you’ll stop supporting wars of aggression in distant lands in which Americans are forced to kill people who pose no threat to the US.
If you really “support the troops” you’ll stop blindly standing up for your government whose proven track record shows that they do everything but support the troops.
If you really support the troops, you’ll educate yourself on who is behind these wars, why they are waged, and how US foreign policy actually creates enemies.
Sticking a magnet to your car and pledging blind obedience and unquestioning support for wars that one’s government illegally wages at the expense of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers, is the antithesis of what a free person should do; and anything but “supporting the troops.”
We must not give into the warmongering propaganda that is shoved down our collective throats by ALL major media outlets. We must regain our humanity AND empathy for other humans. We must be courageous in the face of popular ignorance, and seek to lessen this ignorance by becoming informed and active.
We must cease this paradigm of self-destructive behavior and obstinacy. The power to change the world is in all of our hands, those in power are nothing without your consent and funding.
Will we finance our own demise or wake up to the fact that criminally insane psychopaths are leading the proverbial lemming nation off of a cliff? The choice is yours.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has worked in independent journalism for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world.
Are we as far away from the concept of “just was” as it is possible?
We have always had wars, but what is new is that those who survive often return with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or they outright kill themselves at a rate which is five times higher than the dead in combat.
It is not difficult to imagine that soldiers who find out that they have been tricked into illegal wars and that they have been coerced into committing war crimes will have difficulties living with it, especially after they return home.
It would be interesting to see the statistics on the possible correlation between prescription of anti-depressants and the suicides.
The soldiers who were sent to fight wars not for their country but for the military-industrial complex, for propping up the USD, for preservation of economic interest in heroin production in Afghanistan, for oil etc. are clearly considered expendable by the politicians when they are sent out, and as they return maimed on body and soul, evil minds would probably consider them a financial liability to be cut the sooner the better.
Goofy, that is an excellent point you bring up. “correlation between prescription of antidepressants and suicides”. As well as other psychotropic drugs these poor guys are prescribed by the VA who have no interest in really helping them cope. Psychological counseling (therapy) would do them much more good than any of this poison they are prescribing which only makes them worse in the long run; and I am convinced is the real reason for the increase in suicides. Also, the fact these poor guys are required to do multiple tours – this is unconscionable.
Our patriotic troops were used and destroyed by a regime that forced repeated deployments culminating in intense physical and mental injuries after being played by the government who established the false premise for war. The plan for our warriors was always death…..not survival.
Our Muslim government is our worst enemy
Muslim my A.
This Fool kiled more muslim than Bush. He expanded Bushes war from Iraq to Syria and Agfhanistan to Pakistan. He manage to topple the libyan govenrmet too.
Tom your an evil man. I would say your stupid if you don’t think our goverment is Muslim and destroying the USA. But no one is that stupid. So your evil. Full of evil. Every knee will bow one day Jesus is lord even you evil man.
Stupid is defined in your whole stance. Utterly preposterous and irrational, you have managed to bundle mutually exclusive ideas into one and create a sort of patchwork scarecrow made up of all your personal dislikes. The thing you oppose does;t even exist except within your own stagnant mind. Obama is only helping the extremist Takfiris and even their Wahhabi mothers are losing out to Obama’s efforts. Takfiris are not Muslims they are there enemy of Islam which is why you and your Zionist friends and their Muslim Brotherhood Turks and the Saudi sickos created them in the first place and set them against the most moderate and best of Muslims in the Shia dominated states. The real enemy of your nation has been at the controls now for decades and they have also fed you the garbage you are regurgitating now. You just cannot get off the merry-go-round to see how manipulated you are. Realization is likely to arrive for you at the last minute so you can go down in complete self hating despair. at least when that time comes, I can go with good conscience knowing the evil which has been done by and too our human race, was not supported by me, not even by default.
Yeah its the evil muslims – Instead of our Corrupt Politicians in bed with their Favorite Too Big Too Jail Corporate CEO’s, Wall Street & the Banksters who ripped everyone off in their Financial Scams.
Sure blame it on Muslim….
Our government as Zionist as it gets – Get a grip.
Tom your so stupid and evil your not even worth looking at
Tom you are surrounded by cretins and bigots whose own eyes have been sealed up by evil already. It saddens me to see the dwindling light of common sense and intelligence still flickering bravely among the ashes of what was for a short time a beacon of light on it’s own. The USA is for all its bluster and seeming invincibility closer to its own demise than even the most pessimistic “patriot” could imagine yet the enemy is not in front of their paranoid aim, it is behind them helping them to direct their aim at the only remaining force able to stand against their greedy, anti-human plans.
You dopey clowns have no chance of righting the imbalance so long as you buy into such ridiculous memes. The regime in Washington has been waging war and creating horrific situations for Islam and Muslims world wide. They have world the creation of an apostate bastardized form of Wahhabism, itself already a poison gift from the Banksters who own you too. These Takfiri swine are the antithesis of Islam and despite talking a good game against Europe and Christians, are mostly engaged in brutalizing and creating chaos among Muslims. They, like your president (YOUR president, not ours you see), are only Muslims where it is convenient to their cause. In the case of your Obama puppet the cause is to cause warfare and hatred among the East and the West so it is an obvious stunt to make sure he can have the desired enemy face projected onto him given the way your politics works. Now the reaction from the right will ensure the war that Barky really started, will be fought with all the misguided, extremist jingoism for which the USA is infamous. You are incredibly daft sheep being pushed and pulled like puppets and every time a new election arises I find myself talking to one or the other side, Left or right. trying to make them see that the problem is not the left or right, not the Muslims you have been driven to call enemies now years after you first began the attack against us. Muslims did;t do 9/11 and only a few moronic holdouts don’t realise by now. Those who did it remain dominant in US politics, media and Hollywood and they are not Muslims. However your foolish reactions and lame brained acceptance of the propaganda against Muslims is absolutely in their interests. The USA has been sucked dry, turned inside out in service to a small pestilent state in the Middle East which itself is just a private fiefdom for the Banksters whose name has been at the forefront of discussion for decades whenever deep geopolitical mechanisms are discussed. They started all wars for more than 200 years and have always profited by being ensconced within both sides of any conflict. The Wahhabis are Rothschild pets just as the Zionists are and you Americans as we Australians are not even pets, merely servants and barely even that, since all they want is the fruit of our labour and the nations we have built up. The USA is about to be used as a stick to cosh the others into line, however the USA is also designed to break itself in the act. The tragedy is that the NWO the USA is being used as a bulldozer to create, does not even have a seat at the table for the USA as such. Your cretinous Neocons fondly work towards the goal, stupidly convinced they are working towards a US led NWO. The USA must of necessity be destroyed or rendered harmless for the real NWO they have planned to arise. This isn’t even a secret if you just open your eyes and read the official documents put out by the CFR and some other policy groups known to be beyond the national governments they “advise”
Our troops doesn’t do the fight unless they ran into one. I was in Afghanistan 2004-06 OEF. Usually the ANA do the fighting and when they get the Taliban, US transferred them to Bagram and latter to Git-mo. Nothing special about the US. I wonder why soldier go mental.
Maybe because they killed innocents, children and women? But that will make them mental before they killed women and children
I’m glad your OK Tom….. we thank you and we love you.
I feel like crying.
These beautiful young lives should never have been exposed to these horrors.
Never have been forced to violate themselves and / or other human beings over lies and selfish ill-founded goals.
When we cross over, we will re-member Love again.
“….Not only are active duty soldiers tragically ending their own lives at an increasing rate, but once they finish their service, these numbers skyrocket….”
No one is master of another’s moral character, and in this alone lies good and evil. No one, therefore, can secure the good for me or involve me in evil, but I alone have authority over myself in these matters.- Epictetus, in Discourses 4.12.7-8
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Islam is an evil cult. Obama is the leader of issi, Islam, Muslim there the only people I know that blastaemy the holy ghost. That evil why in America we allow that to even be here ?
You should get on your ridiculous religious horse ( most likely fundy christian) and ride out of town!
They are Jesuits/Zionists/Trolls trying to start their holy war again – Not Christians.
He is right, you are a clown and should catch and saddle the next turkey which runs past and ride out of here. But you won’t. Nope you will stay and help push the USA over that cliff anyway.
what if our leaders planned another war and nobody came?..thats the problem, people show up
They would institute a draft. But what if no one signed up for that. Then they’d have to drag everyone off to jail. But then who would build and staff the jails.
theres not enough of them to come after us, and if they built an Army to come after us, what if nobody showed up for that war?
Yes. Though admittedly state propaganda and sabotage of the economy currently produces plenty of signups.
But what these soldiers need more than anything is moral and social support from society. Those soldiers have family, loves, friends, and acquaintances they rely on to thrive.
What if people who kill for government were treated according to what they do. Gently and politely refused service at bars, avoided at social gatherings, defriended on Facebook, declined for dates, or passed over for jobs. Same treatment they would encounter if they slaughtered innocent people in the town next door instead of just innocent people overseas.
That’s how a pacific minority might have outsized influence on how many show up for war. Assuming a calm, kindly, but firm moral stand against war in the ordinary world expressed through peaceful voluntary actions, even if awkward and uncomfortable to do so. Through their own choices raise the total personal social and economic costs of choosing to become an aggressor to be higher than the benefits.
enlistment since 2000 is down, nobody wants to fight other peoples wars..ships left port with less than full crews..the people that went to fight was already in…people joined the national guard to protect there own cities but yet ..there they was ordered to go to a foreign war..if you want to support the troops, you shouldnt support somebody elses war..
I thought the number of military suicides would be tremendously higher, given the quality of the group (veterans administration) who wrote that wonderful unbiased report.
The reason for this is that these are RESERVISTS who never expected to be the First Called to “war”. They are then ordered to break into homes and kill EVERYONE inside as they were ‘reported’ to be the enemy.
When they are then attacked by the patriots defending their OWN country/families, the U.S. Soldiers are broken. They pledged to protect the U.S. from all enemies – foreign – AND DOMESTIC! They just do NOT know how to attack the DOMESTIC enemy who is now kidnapping(arresting?) journalists for REPORTING the news against the Feds.
This leads to a tremendous conflict within each soldier. Why did they sign-up for Reservists? IT was to get the benefits and Now they have to pay by killing women and children BECAUSE they are TOLD TO! NOT because these were attacking them, these ‘enemy’ were at home asleep when they were killed.
The real cause is the Military Leadership who orders thee killings without provocation or justification, but, because they relish the Power & Control that they have in their positions of POWER!
I have not seen pictures that showed the American Military in such deplorable conditions since Viet Nam. There the troops were simply Weathered down. The monsoons were so unlike anything that they experienced in the U.S. that they had no idea that mold could GROW on your clothes WHILE YOU WERE WEARING THEM!
In the Middle East, they are living in foxholes in the sand. WHY?
Why are we even there? Just WHAT did these people ever do to the U.S.?
The ONLY reason for our being there is the Military/Industrial COmplex that Eisenhower WARNED us about! The M/I Complex is REPLACING the war materials to improve their bank balances. Nothing less.
With the Russians (USSR) no longer enemies, there was no reason to make more of everything! Bombs, planes, tanks, HUMVees, guns, bullets, canteens, pants, shirts, EVERYTHING!
Get a “new enemy” and GET BACK TO WORK!
Then the PTB (Powers That Be for those who haven’t heard the term) started to destroy the very LAND that the soldiers are sleeping on. DU weapons! Depleted Uranium is anything BUT depleted! It simply means that there isn’t enough radiation left to make it financially feasible to rework it for energy – so – they make bullets, artillery shells, bombs, and missile warheads with it. This then ‘leaks’ radiation into the soil to make the ground RADIOACTIVE!
Check out the photos on line to see the deplorable lives of the children born AFTER we started this war.
The UNITED STATES is the worst thing to happen to the WORLD since Noah’s Flood!
The British invaded the world and made most their slaves but the US has invaded and made the world a WASTELAND!
Why are US Troops in so many countries?
The Illuminati Agenda is well on it’s way to becoming REALITY!
If we do NOT stop the CRIMINAL FBI and CIA IMMEDIATELY they will incarcerate everyone that disagrees publicly and then make the rest of you kiss their – – -!
There have been over 136 Detention Facilities stocked for over 10 years just waiting for the ‘right time’ and it looks like that time is NOW! These are like the Japanese Camps of WWII here in the US. Guards are only Outside the barbed wire fences while inside it’s “EVERY MAN/WOMAN for themselves”.
are our soldiers defective
or is the gov’t experimenting with our soldiers?
They have inbuilt use by dates. The use of DU weapons has also ensured this. Within a very short time after returning, vets are designed to break down and become harmless. This is simple to understand. The most dangerous group in society are combat vets who learn the truth that sent them to war and that has hijacked their nation. The regime in Washington has even got plans of fitting troops with chips in the future which will give them the ability to terminate them anytime, including after deployment.
I’ve heard that many soldiers are put on psyc drugs, which cause a lot of suicides.
Obama is making things MUCH worse by supporting our enemies. He supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Libya, and I think Yemen. He helped arm what became ISIS in Syria. He made a deal with Iran that will let them have $157 billion to do terrorism and build nukes and missiles. The deal makes it very hard to detect Iran cheating, which they’ll surely do.
And yet still people treat war as if its some game of Risk and little plastic pieces just get recycled later. The war fever that caused all the engagement in the middle east had both Red Team and Blue Team elites in a lathered frenzy to put young people in harms way. Hillary for instance voted for war and it looks like half the Blue Team electorate say – “yeah, thats cool, she’s a leader!”
War, it breaks the generations engaged, it breaks the young innocent victims, and it instills in each an every generation a renewed psychosis.
I’m sorry for all those brainwashed into thinking government violence solves problems.
I have friends who are vets also, Aussie vets from Vietnam. I am also acquainted with some of the “enemies” you have faced. I must reject your assertion. You have always been sent against nations who were no threat to you. Always you have been war criminals and targeted civilians. The second world war has the USA as committing the worst and most prolific war crimes against civilians. Dresden will live in infamy no less time than Hiroshima or Nagasaki and far more justifiably so. Shooting up a family or anything that moves, then claiming the “enemy” were among them is no l;less a war crime and actually the claim does;t justify the “collateral deaths” a term invented by the USA to create smoke around their actions since they have made war against humanity their preferred method of war and war their preferred method of interaction with others if serfdom is not acceptable to them. No you are just trying to justify your crimes but the world is long accustomed to the way of the USA and the time is running out for your impunity to stay. When your nation is down, you will find that even those you called friends were blackmailed and bullied into the role. It is normal for the deceived to be blind to their own state. There were always opportunities to brace yourself and grow a pair if you lack them, and face the truth and deal with it.
Your name says it all.
Why – Because you can’t dispute what he says.
“You have always been sent against nations who were no threat to you. Always you have been war criminals and targeted civilians”
Americans – Especially Servicemen – Cannot admit to themselves that they have been duped by their Lying Politicians to Fight in their Wars For Profit – Just Like Gen Smedley Butler Told You & Ron Paul Too – Its your Foreign Policy of WarMongering.
Is your last name Kerry? You do not deserve one freedom this country and those who fought for them gave you. Go to Mexico or Canada and get your handouts.
Where are you from other than a camels rear end. I doubt the existence of your Aussie vets and I doubt you have any friends other than maybe dung beatles.
We did not start WWll but we ended it. The French caused Vietnam. We defended others. You Muslims have done nothing but torture and murder men, women and children under an excuse you call a religion.
You are obviously incredibly illiterate in political matters! Is it your objective to make your little flag look stupid, because you are succeeding.
Is your objective to make people think you are an alien because of you stupid little icon. You are weird but your not from outer space only out of your mind troll.
My little alien is politically meaningless except that it represents a more remote observation post. That is, until I find really senseless commenting by ignorant, arrogant fools.
Your flag is at the centre of American politics so your obnoxious, ignorant blabbering impacts on the overall perception that is bestowed on all who identify with that flag.
Stop acting like an average “redneck” and find some average Muslim people to have a decent conversation with before you start commenting about Muslim people. In other words, grow up you twit.
“We did not start WWll but we ended it”
Still sticking with Fraudulent History. We broke the Japanese Codes & embargoed their country with ships to keep oil & other Natural resources from getting to them.
We provoked Japan to attack us – Just like we are provoking countries today to attack us.
I feel the urge to vomit every time someone says that members of the US military fight for our freedom and to serve their country.
Henry Kissinger (no friend of mine) in my opinion hit the nail on the head when he observed:
“Military men are dumb and stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”
It was the late-great USMC Maj. General, Smedley Butler who said, War is a Racket… his book titled the same, should be read by anyone thinking of joining the military.
Its going to be you doing the Burning Ozzmoses – Christ told you that you have to “Love your Enemies” – And your on here preaching you have to Kill them.
I love my enemies. Your Quran teaches to kill. The bible is my book. Jesus said you’ll not kill. Your Quran is the sick book that the devil mohamed wrote
The Bible is equally full of war and genocide commanded and instigated by some “god” – NOT the God as the Creator of the universe.
Doug You Sound Like A Indoctrinated College Student. I can’t believe how we let our colleges teach our students false history. I talked to a couple the other day and asked them how and why America was founded. It blue my mind. So sad. And they have to pay years of money back when they got f-cked and was taut false history in college. So sad.
I’m sorry my boy, you’re the one who sound, with corresponding grammar and spelling, like an airhead sophomore.
Read the Bible yourself and you will find many instances where “god” approves or authorises the so-called “chosen” people to raid, plunder and ravage peaceful communities. …………Start with Judges 18.
Well said.
We don’t use the draft so those who sign up are doing so voluntarily. Maybe they should think twice.
Uuuh . . Ahm aMerican redneck . . . ..duuuuuhh….. Ah got a gun ….. an ahm gonna shoot some one……and ahm gonna find my target from de zionut media…..because ah got rotting pork in ma skull.