US Army: soldier suicide rate may set record again September 4, 2008
Posted by revolution in : Advice, News, United States of Losers , comments closedassociated press
WASHINGTON - Soldier suicides this year could surpass the record rate of last year, Army officials said Thursday, urging military leaders at all levels to redouble prevention efforts for a force strained by two wars.
As of the end of August, there were 62 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers and Guard and Reserve troops called to active duty, officials said. Another 31 deaths appear to be suicides but are still being investigated.
If all are confirmed, that means that the number for 2008 could eclipse the 115 of last year — and the rate per 100,000 could surpass that of the civilian population, Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director of human resources policy, said at a Pentagon news conference.
“Army leaders are fully aware that repeated deployments have led to increased distress and anxiety for both soldiers and their families,” Army Secretary Pete Geren said.
“The Army is committed to ensuring that all soldiers and their families receive the behavioral health care they need,” he said in a statement distributed at the press conference on National Suicide Prevention Week starting Sunday.
“Installations and units across the Army have been directed to redouble their efforts in awareness and prevention training and soldier care and support services,” Stephens said.
To try to stem the continually growing number of suicides, the Army already has been increasing the number of staff psychiatrists and other mental health staff as well as chaplains and bolstering programs both at home and at the battlefronts. Officials also are about to issue a new interactive video for troops and will be adding a new program on resilience to basic training starting in January, said Brig. Gen. Rhonda L. Cornum, an assistant Army surgeon general.
“There are no simple problems and there are no simple solutions,” Cornum said. “There is no program that has been shown to be truly effective at preventing suicides … Success will be the sum of a number of smaller steps.”
As officials have said before, Cornum said the main factors in soldier suicides continues to be problems with their personal relationships, legal and financial issues, work problems and the repeated deployments and longer tour lengths prompted by an Afghan war entering its eighth year and Iraq campaign in its sixth.
The Army has come under unprecedented stress as the main force in the two largely ground wars
Of the confirmed deaths so far this year, three soldiers were in the Army Reserves and four in the Army National Guard.
If the overall numbers continue through December as they have been, Stephens said, they would eclipse the 115 of 2007, 102 in 2006, 87 in 2005 and 67 in 2004.
The rate per 100,000 soldiers also has been rising and could be surpassed. It was 18.1 per 100,000 last year — the highest since the Army started keeping record in 1980. That compared to a rate of 17.5 in 2006 and 9.8 in 2002 — the first full year after the start of the war in Afghanistan.
The rate for 2008 has not been calculated, officials said, but if the trend holds, it would surpass the demographically adjusted rate of 19.5 per 100,00 for the civilian population, Stephens said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for U.S. society overall was about 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the latest year for which the agency has figures. But the Army says that when civilian rates are adjusted to cover the same age and gender mix that exists in the Army — a younger and largely male population — the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per 100,000.
The Army has come under unprecedented stress as the main force in the two largely ground wars.
The Marine Corps, the second biggest force in Iraq — and even younger and more male than the Army — had a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 in 1007, the last year readily available. The Air Force and Navy had rates of a little over 10 per 100,000, according to defense records.
Col. Carl Castro, director of military operational medical research for the Army, said that in addition to the many programs officials are trying, there needs to be a cultural shift in the military to get people to focus more on mental health and fitness.
“It takes some time … to get a cultural shift,” he said “Sometimes they take decades.”
In addition to suicide prevention programs, the Pentagon also has been working to encourage troops to seek mental health care by reducing the stigma associated with getting help. Officials believe many who need help don’t get it because they fear it will hurt their careers.
Officials last year also budgeted $25 million for the “Strong Bonds” program, run by chaplains and aimed at strengthening personal relationships strained by long and repeated separations as well as other stresses.
US veterans demonstrate against the ‘Iraaq war August 27, 2008
Posted by revolution in : 'IrÄq, United States of Losers , 2 commentsWhat this US Veteran says in the end is of paramount importance:
“I hope that that momentum (of anti-war) will gain, and that it will build, and our hope is that through our strategy that it will actually topple our military from within.”
And what he says regarding the Democrats-Republican split is very true:
“I believe most of it is rhetoric. I mean the whole separation between Democrats and Republicans to me is this idea that Democrats are traditionally anti-war, but if you look at the history, they’re not; they are just better at hiding it.”
Click here to watch.
That’s a strong message to all those who support the war in ‘Iraaq.
Your own sons want to topple the US Military from within because they are sick of the lies of the US Administration.
Alhamdullilaah, Allah Ta’aalaa is exposing the United States Army from within and this goes to help the Mujaahideen who are fighting in Allah’s Cause; and Allah is the best of planners and He helps from those places which the people don’t expect.
Reuters: U.S.-led forces kill 76 Afghan civilians: ministry August 22, 2008
Posted by revolution in : AfghÄnistÄn, News, United States of Losers , add a commentSounds like a typical American operation in Afghanistan.
They can’t kill enough Mujaahideen, so they go after the civilians and say, “We thought they were terrorists.”
And somehow, the world pardons them and nobody cries “terrorist.”
But if the Taliban make a mistake in an operation against the Americans - and a few civilians are killed, and they apologize with deep sympathy - everyone cries “terrorist.”
The following is taken from Reuters:
U.S.-led forces kill 76 Afghan civilians: ministry
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 76 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan on Friday, most of them children, the Interior Ministry said.
The coalition denied killing civilians. Civilian deaths in military operations have become an emotive issue among Afghans, many of whom feel international forces take too little care when launching air strikes, undermining support for their presence.
“Seventy-six civilians, most of them women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation in Herat province,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Coalition forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province on Friday afternoon, the ministry said. Nineteen of the victims were women, seven of them men and the rest children under the age of 15, it said.
Updates on Sr. Aafia Siddiqui August 21, 2008
Posted by revolution in : News, Sorrow, United States of Losers, Videos , 3 comments
[Aafia and her 12 year old son Ahmad, being questioned in front of the media by Afghan officials. Ghazni, Afghanistan, July 17th 2008]
May Allah save us from the Hellfire for seeing our Sister in such a horrible state and staying quiet.
Here are a few updates regarding our Sister, Aafia Siddiqui (may Allah free her).
1.
PROTEST - COURT HEARING FOR AAFIA SIDDIQUI
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
2:00pmUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York
500 Pearl Street
Manhattan, NYThe hearing is on 3rd September is at the United States District Court (U.S.D.C.) for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y), located at 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan.
The hearing will start at 2:30pm
Cageprisoners suggests that concerned inviduals who cannot attend organise their own local protests in solidarity.
contact@cageprisoners.com
BACKGROUNDDr Aafia Siddiqui, the American educated Pakistani scientist and mother of three was detained for years by the US in Bagram. She has been the victim of the US programme of secret detention for five years since having been kidnapped in Karachi by Pakistan security services in 2003 along with her three children.
On Monday 4th August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Aafia Siddiqui was extradited to the US from Afghanistan where they allege she had been detained since mid-July 2008. The US administration claims that she was arrested by Afghani forces outside Ghazni governor’s compound with manuals on explosives and ‘dangerous substances in sealed jars’ on her person. They further allege that whilst in custody she shot at US officers and was injured in the process.
According to her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, “We do know she was at Bagram for a long time. It was a long time. According to my client she was there for years and she was held in American custody; her treatment was horrendous.”
Aafia’s claim is contrary to the heavily contested position of the US administration that she was detained in July by Afghan forces while attempting to bomb the compound of the governor of Ghazni. The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment in July 2008.
Aafia Siddiqui now faces trial in the US in circumstances that can only be described as strange at best. Questions remain as to her own whereabouts over the last five years and still that of her children.
Her medical condition is currently extremely poor as she suffers from gun shot wounds, and part of her intestine has been removed. Her condition is not made any easier by the flights of stairs she is forced to climb by herself in her condition during visits and the strip and cavity searches that she is forced to endure.
2. Initial Questioning of Aafia Siddiqui in Afghanistan
3. Protest for Dr Aafia Siddiqui - Speech by Yvonne Ridley
If you haven’t written a letter to Sr. Aafia Siddiqui, please do so by clicking here.
May Allah save us from the Hellfire for failing to protect our Sister.
Iraqi civilians lie dying after US helicopters open fire on crowds August 18, 2008
Posted by revolution in : 'IrÄq, Images, United States of Losers , 2 commentsThis is how the United States is winning the “hearts and minds” of the people.
Iraqi civilians lie dying after US helicopters open fire on crowds celebrating around a burning US vehicle. Baghdad Iraq 2004. Source
Allahul Musta’aan.
Has the US abandoned the claim of Baghdadi as a “fictitious character”? August 17, 2008
Posted by revolution in : 'IrÄq, IslÄmic State of 'IrÄq, True ShuyÅ«kh, United States of Losers , add a commentIt is quite interesting to note that in this current war in ‘Iraaq, Washington is seeming to back away - in a silent way so that nobody notices the embarassment - from the claim that Ameer al-Mu’mineen of the Islaamic State of ‘Iraaq, Abu ‘Umar al-Baghdadi, is a “fictitious character.” A few months ago, this was the suggestion of the Bush Adminstration which the media war mongers started blurting out to the globalized world.
But when the ‘Iraaqi security forces made a few claims along the way that they “thought” they captured Abu ‘Umar al-Baghdadi - and in one case, were almost absolutely certain (but the Mujaahideen just made a laughingstock out of them) - it seemed that the Bush Administration decided to change the tactics again and forget the character assassination since lying didn’t work (to hurt their credibility in the eyes of the people). And after May 6th, they became extremely quiet when al-Arabiya reported that Shaykh Baghdadi is Hamid Dawud al-Zawi, a former intel officer in Saddam’s security apparatus. Wallahu ‘Alam as to the claim of course.
The Administration is good in its lies when things go their way. But Allah exposed them through their own house Negroes and they didn’t fool anyone except the foolish.
Your President… Drunk at the Olympics August 16, 2008
Posted by revolution in : Funnies, Images, JihÄd, United States of Losers , 11 comments
What a laughingstock your pathetic President is.
Your President is an accurate display of the majority of how Americans are.
AllahuAkbar for Islaam. Our leaders - Mullah ‘Umar, Shaykh ‘Umar al-Baghdadi, Shaykh Usaamah, Abu Mus’ab al-Wadood, Beitullah Mehsud, Maulana Fazlullah, etc. - are honorable and pious people who devote themselves in the worship of Allah at all times.
Lo! The party of Allah, they are the triumphant! [5:56]
John McCain: “In The 21st Century Nations Don’t Invade Other Nations” August 15, 2008
Posted by revolution in : Funnies, United States of Losers, Videos , 5 comments
In the context of the Georgia-Russian conflict, John McCain showed his disapproval towards Russia saying,
“In The 21st Century Nations Don’t Invade Other Nations.”
Now that’s what you call pure grade “A” American Hypocrisy.
To watch the short video, click here.
I guess John McCain forget that America invaded ‘Iraaq and Afghanistan and that he himself wants America to stay in ‘Iraaq for 100 years.
These Kuffaar are nothing except liars. May Allah humiliate them.
Georgian Terrorists are attacking Civilians
Posted by revolution in : News, United States of Losers, Videos , 1 comment so farThe Country that the United States fully supports and backs is Georgia (in the conflict). Yet, there is a similar odd smell coming from them… like American soldiers, they too kill civilians.
Check out these videos:
FOX News Reporter runs away from Georgian Soldiers
FOX News cuts off 12 year-old girl & her aunt who says Georgian soldiers are killing civilians
Also see the video below regarding the possible reason why this whole war started… it’s very interesting and can’t be ruled out (mute the music):
An ‘Iraqi Mother holding her son… in his last moments…
Posted by revolution in : 'IrÄq, Images, Sorrow, United States of Losers , 9 comments
Killed by the Americans.
The same fools who say they are bringing peace and stability into ‘Iraaq.
Many Americans don’t know what it’s like to have a love one die in their arms after they are shot by a treacherous occupier that laughs at civilians who are nearly killed.
Hasbunullah wa ni’malwakeel.
