‘Bring on the dangers, I am not scared,’ this is what the armed troops believe before going to the most demanding military missions. However, overstated warfare across the world, Iraq and Afghanistan in particular, have been making troops war weary and even forcing them to commit suicide under the immense physical and mental pressure in the alien fronts.
A new military report acquired by The Associated Press, ahead of its official release today, has revealed that suicide rate - with 99 active troops committing suicide last year - among US Army soldiers is the highest in past 26 years.
Despite growing efforts by the Army to detect and prevent suicides, the number of U.S. Army soldiers who took their own lives increased last year to the highest total since the 102 suicides in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War.
The report primarily held failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of prolonged jobs responsible for forcing soldiers to commit suicide.
A brisk fluctuation has been noticed in the suicide rate for the Army troops since 1991. While the suicide rate in 2001, with 9.1 per 100,000, was the lowest, it reached highest, with 17.3 per 100,000, in 2006 in past 26 years. Moreover, projections for the year 2007 aren’t encouraging, as preliminary numbers for the early half of this year indicate a possible increase in suicide rates among US troops serving in the wars.
Soldiers ending their lives, under mental pressure, have raised some damn serious concerns that the US authorities have failed to illustrate over the years, especially post-war on terror era. Eye-opening figures reported in the latest military report gives an indication of the grave consequences that prolonged wars may exert on the war weary troops. This is a crunch situation for the US administration to rethink (rather recoil) their so-called war on terror in favor of the safety of exhausted troops, unless it becomes too late to recover.
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