Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Military Suicides Treated as Contagious Flu


Suicides by American military personnel are a tragic symptom of the underlying immorality of American overseas military pursuits and the traumatization and hopelessness of too many soldiers.

So, since these ongoing tragic suicides are a public relations nightmare, the military must take action.

One course of action is to re-frame suicide as a viral contagion and then inoculate soldiers against it:

Military Developing Anti-Suicide Nasal Spray As Deaths Hit Record Numbers By Katie Drummond, The Daily 20 August 12 http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/323-95/13024-military-developing-anti-suicide-nasal-spray-as-deaths-hit-record-numbers

[Excerpted] As the suicide rate among soldiers climbs to the highest levels in history, the Army is hoping Americans might one day treat their mental health woes with a single sniff.

The Army has just handed a $3 million grant to researchers at the University of Indiana's School of Medicine for the creation of an anti-suicide nasal spray. The project, to be led by Dr. Michael Kubek, an associate professor of neurobiology, is arguably one of the more unusual military efforts to thwart a record number of suicides among active-duty personnel and veterans....

According to Kubek and his colleagues, a snort of their suicide-stopping neurochemical - a naturally occurring compound called thyrotropin-releasing hormone, or TRH - could be the solution....

Majia here: The story belies belief.

I actually know a bit about military life. My husband was in the US Infantry in the 1990s.

I'm a pacifist so that presented certain problems, but during the time period he was in the military the only military action was the first Gulf War (which he did not participate in).

Suicide was not a major problem in the 1990s the way it is today. Post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries were not the problems they are today.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan echo the mistakes of Vietnam in so many ways.

US efforts to exert colonial control over the Middle East and Africa in ongoing resource wars with other nations are in fact killing countless civilians and US soldiers while disrupting entire regions.

War is never the solution and until we stop killing people overseas our soldiers will continue to be traumatized by innocent deaths and traumatic injuries.

Treating military suicides as flu-like symptoms points to the heart of our moral depravity.
 

 

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