← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · madrussian
Thread ID: 11899 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2004-01-14
2004-01-14 20:27 | User Profile
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 21 U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, a growing toll that represents one in seven of American "non-hostile" deaths since the war began last March, the Pentagon's top health official said on Wednesday.
"Fighting this kind of war is clearly going to be stressful for some people," Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Dr. William Winkenwerder told reporters in an interview.
"There have been about 21 confirmed suicides during the past year associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom," Winkenwerder said, adding that 18 were Army troops and three others were in the Navy and Marine Corps.
The suicide toll is probably higher than 21, he added, because some "pending" non-hostile deaths are being investigated.
A total of 496 U.S. troops have been killed since the war began last March, 343 of them in combat and 153 in non-hostile incidents ranging from accidents to suicide, the Pentagon said.
The 21 suicides represent nearly 14 percent of non-hostile deaths reported by the Pentagon, an increase over the proportion of 11 percent as of three months ago when the suicide number totaled 13.
BATTLE STRESS
Winkenwerder said the military was concerned over the suicides and was moving to deal with "battle stress" and other emotional problems triggered by armed conflict.
He did not provide any suicide rates for past U.S. conflicts but suggested that problems such as the domestic killings involving soldiers who returned to their base in North Carolina from Afghanistan in 2002 had prompted the Army to be more aware of stress.
Authorities say four soldiers at Fort Bragg killed their wives in June and July of 2002. Three of the cases involved Special Operations soldiers returning from Afghanistan. Two of the soldiers committed suicide and the other two were charged with murder. A fifth case involved a Special Forces major who was killed, with his wife charged with murder.
A November 2002 Army report concluded that the stress put on military families by frequent separations as the soldiers trained and fought may have contributed to the killings.
The military's responses to stress problems now include toll-free telephone numbers for troops to call for help as well as an increased number of military psychiatric specialists in Iraq to deal with problems before they become critical.
"Are those individuals who need (stress) support getting it? Are they being identified?," Winkenwerder asked. "We believe 'yes."'
"We don't see any trend there that tells us that there's more we might be doing," Winkenwerder said, noting that between 300 and 400 troops had been evacuated from Iraq for stress-related problems.
The U.S. military strength in Iraq currently stands at about 123,000.
Winkenwerder also said emergency military medical teams stationed in Iraq, combined with new body armor and other protective devices, had resulted in a sharply lower death rate among wounded soldiers compared to past wars.
In addition to the death toll, more than 2,400 troops have been wounded in Iraq since the war began.
"Clearly the body armor helps" in saving lives, Winkenwerder said, but added that emergency medical teams were a key factor in preventing death from blood loss in the "golden hour" after a soldier was wounded.
2004-01-14 20:33 | User Profile
[B][SIZE=3]U.S. Soldiers' Suicide Rate Is Up in Iraq[/SIZE][/B]
By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are killing themselves at an unusually high rate, despite the work of special teams sent to help troops deal with combat stress, the Pentagon's top doctor said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from the war on terrorism are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The problem of troops on "medical extension" is likely to get worse as the Pentagon rotates hundreds of thousands of troops into and out of Iraq this spring, he said.
Both situations illustrate the stresses placed on the troops and the military's health system by the war in Iraq.
Suicide has become such a pressing issue that the Army sent an assessment team to Iraq late last year to see if anything more could be done to prevent troops from killing themselves. The Army also began offering more counseling to returning troops after several soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., killed their wives and themselves after returning home from the war.
Winkenwerder said the military has documented 21 suicides during 2003 among troops involved in the Iraq war. Eighteen of those were Army soldiers, he said.
That's a suicide rate for soldiers in Iraq of about 13.5 per 100,000, Winkenwerder said. In 2002, the Army reported an overall suicide rate of 11.1 per 100,000.
The overall suicide rate nationwide during 2001 was 10.7 per 100,000, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By contrast, only two U.S. military personnel killed themselves during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, although that conflict only lasted about a month. The Army recorded 102 suicides during 1991 for a rate of about 13.5 per 100,000.
The military investigates every death and some of those probes may be incomplete, meaning the actual suicide rate could be even higher, Winkenwerder said. He said health officials haven't identified any common threads among the confirmed suicides.
"We don't see any trend there that tells us that there's more we might be doing," Winkenwerder told a breakfast meeting of Pentagon reporters.
The military has nine combat stress teams in Iraq to help treat troops' mental health problems, and each division has a psychiatrist, psychologist and social worker, Winkenwerder said. Of more than 10,000 troops medically evacuated from Iraq, between 300 and 400 were sent outside the country for treatment of mental health problems, he said.
The military prefers to treat mental health problems such as depression by keeping troops in their regular duties while they get counseling and possibly medication, Winkenwerder said. Less than one percent of the troops in Iraq are treated for mental issues during an average week, he said.
Winkenwerder said he had no specifics on the number of soldiers being treated for battlefield stress, although the military is focused on treating that problem.
"We believe they are being identified, they are being supported," Winkenwerder said.
The military also is working to solve the issue of soldiers awaiting non-emergency medical care. Since November, about 1,900 of 4,400 waiting for medical care have been treated, Winkenwerder said.
But the military expects more problems when tens of thousands of troops are rotated in and out of Iraq this spring, Winkenwerder said. Many of those troops leaving Iraq may have to wait at various bases in the United States for medical treatment such as physical therapy for injuries, he said.
The Army is working to sign contracts with civilian medical providers and bringing in more staff from the Navy, Air Force and Department of Veterans Affairs to help, Winkenwerder said.
Another source of the problem has been a large number of National Guard and reserve troops activated for duty in Iraq who have to be treated for underlying health problems, Winkenwerder said. The Army is working to solve that problem by screening those reservists at their home bases, rather than later.
2004-01-14 20:56 | User Profile
"Bring em on!"
What a clown he is. I wonder how he'd like serving on the streets of Baghdad, instead of sitting in his ivory tower. Like I always point out, we need the old-style of war, where the King had to sit at the back of the army.
Not 4,000 miles away in his mansion. That'd make Bushie think a bit more about going to war. When asked how many troops were in Iraq, the chimp didn't even know!
Yeah, he cares. I know, b/c that's what Fox News tells me.
-Jay
2004-01-14 21:53 | User Profile
No doubt the perpective of the war changes dramatically once a relative gets killed. I am still not sure whether many people start "getting it" even after a personal tragedy.