The Civic Platform - A Political Journal of Ideas and Analysis

February 1, 2008 - 8:15AM
As many as 121 US soldiers may have committed suicide in 2007, a record number if confirmed, according to Army statistics released today.

The Army reported 89 suicides and 32 suspected cases among active-
duty soldiers in 2007. If the 32 cases are confirmed, the 121
suicides would be a nearly 20 per cent increase over 2006, when 102
soldiers committed suicide.

Army officials said relationship problems were the main cause of
suicides among soldiers, but those problems were increasing due to
repeated long deployments as the force is strained by the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think that it is a marker of the stress on the force,” Army
psychiatrist Colonel Elspeth Ritchie said.

“Families are getting tired,” Ritchie told a news conference at the
Pentagon. “Therefore, sometimes they’re more irritable, sometimes
they don’t take care of each other the way they should, are not as
nurturing as they should be.”

The number of suicides has risen in four of the past five years for
which complete data is available and the 2006 figure was the highest
since 1991.

The number of soldiers attempting suicide or inflicting injuries on
themselves has also jumped in recent years.

That figure rose from about 350 in 2002 to around 2,100 in 2007,
although Ritchie said the large jump partly reflects better
recordkeeping.

She said the Army was increasing its efforts to help soldiers cope
with relationship problems, identify possible suicidal tendencies in
their comrades and seek help if they were having suicidal thoughts.

“We’re trying to decrease stigma, but that is not an easy thing to do
at all,” Ritchie said. “We have been perturbed by the rise, despite
all of our efforts.”

The Army says its suicide rate has generally been a good deal lower
than the 19.9 per 100,000 among people of the same age and gender in
the civilian population.

In 2006, however, the Army rate rose to 17.5 per 100,000 - the
highest since the Army began tracking the rate in 1980.

Reuters

http://www.theage. com.au/news/ world/us- soldier-suicides -hits-
record/2008/ 02/01/1201800977 765.html