"Until they come to grips with how long and frequent deployments are straining soldiers and shattering lives we will continue to see this frightening trend" - Lie of the week from Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)

The mainstream media's propaganda war against the US military continues...

For years, the alphabet news networks, the New York Times, the AP and Reuters have been steadily beating the drum of defeat - spewing enemy propaganda and generally doing everything in their power to sap support at home for our military efforts abroad.

A few weeks ago, I published a piece on the New York Times' fascination with military murders. Last week an AP writer had a fetish with military suicides. At some point, one has to ask why they're so agog over the deaths of US military members?

It is far too easy these days to find irresponsible journalists who have no interest in highlighting heroic acts by our soldiers or progress that they're making in Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, they're peddling their agenda disguised as news or journalism. They hastily contrive dramatic, sensational stories based on complete ignorance of the fortitude, sacrifice and devotion it takes to serve your country and a biased interpretation of long-established facts.

This week, I compared an AP piece entitled "Army Suicides, Attempts Rise Again" by Pauline Jelinek with the Defense Department article that was the source of her statistical information.

In her introductory paragraph, Jelinek dramatically sets the stage for her unsupported argument that the war on terror is somehow linked to rising suicide rates among active duty military personnel:

"Multiple new efforts aimed at stemming suicides in the Army are falling short of their goal: The service anticipates another jump in the annual number of soldiers who killed themselves or tried to, including in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones."

She goes on to cite statistics that have yet to be confirmed by the Defense Department:"As many as 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007."

In reaching her conclusion that Iraq and Afghanistan are resulting in suicide spikes, Jelinek dishonestly lumps suicides and suicide attempts with those who "injured themselves for some other reason" in citing a rise in these incidents from 350 in 2002 to 2,100 in 2007.

Continuing, she suggests that because the spike in suicides, attempts and "other injuries" occurred between 2002 and 2007, that they were inextricably linked with longer, repeated deployments to Iraq and the deadliest year to date in Afghanistan. Throughout, she selectively cherry-picks the most negative aspects of her source material while ignoring or downplaying historical data and ongoing military efforts to combat the problem.

Jelinek's piece concludes with this article's introductory quote from "Pashtun" Patty Murray (D-WA) as proof of how easy it is to influence dim-witted politicians with junk science and propaganda.

Jelinek devoted the first half of her article entirely to advancing her bogus theory. It's not until you get through the first half that you begin to see how she mangles the truth. Based on personal observation as well as years of Defense Department data, I can confidently say that the vast majority of military suicides are due to relationship or financial problems. During my military service, I watched in horror as dozens of marriages literally vaporized around me. Many of the men affected were lifelong friends of mine who gave up their freedoms to secure yours and they lost nearly everything in the process. The letters from their wives explaining why they took their dogs, cars, and babies and just left would move even the most hardened to tears.

Yet, despite all of that; the stresses of family separation; long deployments filled with boredom for some; intense urban combat resulting in dead friends lost limbs, traumatic brain injuries and PTSD for others; Jelinek fails to tell her readers that suicide rates among military personnel, while approaching the level of the civilian population, are still lower.

I, along with my entire company once witnessed one attempted suicide by a Navy recruit who cracked and I vaguely knew another sailor who actually did take his own life. But the first incident was during basic training and another while my ship was berthed safely in its home port. Suicides among deployed military members of any branch of service are extremely rare. Jelinek deosn't tell you that, either.

As of January 31, 2008 the Defense Department has confirmed 89 military suicides with another 32 deaths under investigation. They may or may not turn out to be suicides, it's too early to tell. But it sounds more dramatic when Jelinek reports 121, even if they're unconfirmed.

The military cannot yet separate cause vs. effect. They cannot yet quantify the actual increase in suicide attempts, yet Jelinek claims be able to extrapolate exactly how many of those incidents were suicide attempts versus everyday injuries. Is it really because of more stress and longer deployments, or are technological advancements and sensational media over-sensitizing us to this type of baloney? I challenge anyone to prove the statistics different among the civilian population. Soldiers are human. If they take their own lives, they do so for the same reasons that others do.

Next week's article is based on an interview I had with a brave US Marine with 3 combat tours under his belt who will reveal why being shot at in combat is the least of his worries.

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