To Riff2422: You state "There are no troops that do not re-enlist that will see the iraq theatre more than twice in their service. They don't whine about it obviously, so um don't feel bad. The funniest thing about this war is that the ones that have never served whine the most." You also claim to be an Iraq Vet. You know what? I think your full of it. If you even ARE or WERE in the military, I have doubts that you've ever been in a warzone. Hey, anyone can buy a uniform and look "official" at the military surplus stores. My husband has never whined once, even after serving 5 tours in Iraq and Afganistan, nor have any of my friends. Last I checked, this is still America and we all have the right to voice our opinions, even if I find yours borderline offensive. You are brainwashed and probably not very smart, you also seem very gung-ho about fighting in Iraq, so I suggest you go back to Iraq or Afganistan so my husband doesn't have to do a SIXTH tour while you sit around whining about people sitting at their desks trying to earn a living while their loved ones very well COULD be (in my case IS) away in a war zone - you stupid, ignorant fool! Oh yeah, happy holidays everyone!
‘Anything Not to Go Back’
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As an internist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Stephanie Santos is used to finding odd things in people's stomachs. So last spring when a young man, identifying himself as an Iraq-bound soldier, said he had accidentally swallowed a pen at the bus station, she believed him. That is, until she found a second pen. It read 1-800-GREYHOUND. Last summer, according to published reports, a 20-year-old Bronx soldier paid a hit man $500 to shoot him in the knee on the day he was scheduled to return to Iraq. The year before that, a 24-year-old specialist from Washington state escaped a second tour of duty, according to his sister, by strapping on a backpack full of tools and leaping off the roof of his house, injuring his spine.
Such cases of self-harm are a "rising trend" that military doctors are watching closely, says Col. Kathy Platoni, an Army Reserve psychologist who has worked with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. "There are some soldiers who will do almost anything not to go back," she says. Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the Army's top psychologist, agrees that we could see an uptick in intentional injuries as more U.S. soldiers serve long, repeated combat tours, "but we just don't have good, hard data on it." Intentional- injury cases are hard to identify, and even harder to prosecute. Fewer than 21 soldiers have been punitively discharged for self-harm since 2003, according to the military. What's worrying, however, is that American troops committed suicide at the highest rate on record in 2007—and the factors behind self-injury are similar: combat stress and strained relationships. "It's often the families that don't want soldiers to return to war," says Ritchie.
Soldiers have long used self-harm as a rip cord to avoid war. During World War I, The American Journal of Psychiatry reported "epidemics of self-inflicted injuries," hospital wards filled with men shot in a single finger or toe, as well as cases of pulled-out teeth, punctured eardrums and slashed Achilles' heels. Few doubt that the Korean and Vietnam wars were any different. But the current war—fought with an overtaxed volunteer Army—may be the worst. "We're definitely concerned," says Ritchie. "We hope they'll talk to us rather than self-harm."
© 2008
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