Excuse me but how is this story anti-American or anti-Military?

Is it not true that the Army suicide rate is the highest in 26 years?

Did they lie? 

I don't understand your anger.  Instead of complaining about the media, I'd like to think this story would make you think about the troops and whether we're doing enough for them when they get home.

I was just about to post on your topic of suicides in the general population and discovered you had touched on the topic.

Indeed, perspective is needed and required when dealing with staistics.  As a whole, one might think the military would have higher rates of suicide due to the violent and stressful nature of the work and environment. 

But, how do military suicides rates compare with the general population?  Surely more people commit suicide while in the military.  The answer is NO.  The suicide rates of the general population of the USA, when adjusted for age groups and sex, are larger than that found in the military.  So, you have a lower risk of committing suicide if you are in the military.

http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/374.pdf

http://fathersforlife.org/suicides/US_suicide_rates_80-96.htm

http://fathersforlife.org/suicides/US_suicide_deaths.htm#Graphs

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm

It would also be nice for the media to detail how our military compares with other countries concerning suicide rates.  It so happens at least one study on this found that military suicide rates were demonstrably lower than the general population of a number of industrialized countries, including the USA, even when adjusted for age and sex.

Concerning the general US population, suicide is more prevalent in the Mountain and Western regions of the US.  Californians and Texans do NOT commit suicide at increased frequency compared to the reast of the country, a fact probably dispelling myths on either side of the political spectrum.  Florida is an exception in the East/Midwest, I'm assuming because the state has a preponderence of elderly population with the highest rate of suicide of any age category.  Lastly, is it any wonder that the paradise of Hawaii is not a suicidal haven?(http://webappa.cdc.gov/cdc_mxt3/NationByState.asp?POI_SELECT=1989-1998&STATE_CAUSE_SELECT=SUIC9698_AGEADJ&COLOR_SELECT=Default+Colors+%283+colors%29&x=11&y=6)

To see death rates including various data concerning suicide for the nation click here.  To see how individual states stack up against national parameters click here.

Another factor in the equation could be socioeconomic and educational issues when studying suicide data.  Changes of socioeconomic issues (downward) have been reported as a risk factor for suicide as has lower educational level acheivement.  ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16279300&dopt=AbstractPlus)  Could our all voluntary military, reported as better educated, be a part of the reason prevalence of suicide in the military is lower than in the general US population?  Could the camaraderie and pre-enlistment screening (sociological factors) be another reason for the lower suicide prevalence? Could it be that military training may also modulate the impulsivity involved in suicide and attempted suicides?  (http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/162/9/1688) 

Even the AP article states that 71 out of 99 suicides were by people not deployed to "war", whatever that means geographically and/or combat-wise.  Most suicides occurred outside of the "war", substantiating the accepted fact that suicidal causality is multifactorial.  Military suicide isn't always because of fear and anxiety about dying in combat.  In fact the preponderance of military suicides occured in "safe" areas outside of "war" zones.

And the article is in contradiction to a CBS News report on January 14, 2004 on which year has the lowest suicide prevalence.  The current AP article states a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.  The CBS News report says a low of 7.7 per 100,000 in 2002.  Now, I trust a CBS "News" report about as far as I could carry Michael Moore, but "someone's got some 'splaining to do".

The article also presents nebulous data: 

Firearms were the most common method of suicide. Those who attempted suicide but didn't succeed tended more often to take overdoses and cut themselves.

Not surprisingly, these methods and their overall prevalence mirror the general population concerning suicide methodology.  But a few additional facts might also have been nice.  In one study looking at military suicides from 1980-1992, firearms were used 61% of the times by males and 55% by females, with the Army and white males (of any age or branch of service) at highest risk.  (Hey Charlie Rangel, maybe we should go back to conscription in order to fix the racial bias of suicide in the military.)  Now compare suicide by firearm in the military with that by New York City citizens, 92%, and one could conclude that New Yorkers should join the military to prevent suicide by firearm.  (Hey Charlie Rangel, you were right.  You should be telling your constituents to join the military in order to save their lives!) 

It was difficult finding data concerning psychiatric illness in the military that you can compare not only in those that do/do not commit suicide, but also data on psychiatric illness in the military in different eras encompassing both wartime and peace.  One thing that probably has changed since the demise of conscription was the fact that fewer candidates are screened out as psychologically unfit prior to enlistment:

At the beginning of World War II, the thrust of military psychiatry was to screen out those susceptible to psychiatric breakdown prior to their entering the armed forces. Examining stations rejected 1.6 million registrants for mental or educational reasons—a rate 7.6 times as high as in World War I. Nonetheless, soldiers were discharged for psychiatric reasons at a rate 2.4 times as high as in World War I.  (http://www.answers.com/topic/military-psychiatry) 

This is no doubt due to the fact that a draft relying on all the qualifying age groups in the general population, rather than an all volunteer military, will result in a higher number of psychiatric illnesses screened or later determined after enlistment.  The all volunteer military candidate is psychologically more fit to begin with when looking at aggregate numbers.

What would additionally have been useful was to compare suicide rates/prevalence during Vietnam and World War II.  Is an all voluntary military offer less risk for suicide than a conscripted military?  Is the prevalence of psychiatric illness more or less in our current all volunteer military versus a conscripted military?  Was the prevalence of suicide in the general population greater or lesser than the military during Vietnam and WWII?  (Hey Charlie Rangel, are you listening?)   Alas, our media does not inform us of these important facts when attempting to sway our opinion on a very difficult subject.

Killing them with kindness isn't working.  Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.

Drill, that was an excellent breakdown. I don't feel this particular article is anti-military, though the AP does have a history of portraying facts that way.

I am an Iraq war vet and can tell you first hand that the increased stress of battle, being away from loved ones, and a myriad of other life changes related to war cause many underlying small issues to become (perceived) big issues.  On top of that, many who have not experienced it think that coming home makes everything just go away.  In reality, at least in my experience and the soldiers I dealt with, after the initial jubilation of being back with family and friends and not getting shot at on a daily basis, the other every day problems still arise.  Bills have to be paid, soldiers find out their spouse was cheating on them back home, PTSD, etc.  Unfortunately, again, the numbers of those who had recently been deployed were not given.  What I believe the article is saying is that the suicide rate has increased.  It has.  The reason the military does these studies is so they can take the appropriate actions to fix it.  Every soldier who returns talks to a mental health specialist at least once soon after redeploying.  Does this catch every future suicide case?  No.  But the article doesn't imply that the military is doing nothing about the problem.  I'd give the AP a pass on this one.  We should all continue to read critically and form our own conclusions based on FACTS.

Bruzilla, I have to concur.  A majority of the suicides I dealt with (including one while deployed) were caused in some way over "love".  It's a bitch...

I have a lot of respect for military members who are in the combat arms roles.  These are often people who join the military because they want to be in the military.  They don't join to get training, they don't join because they think their service will help them get a post-service job... in my case, who has openings for guys who hunt submarines from airplanes?  To do the job I did you had to really like being in the service 'cause you weren't getting set up for anything great after being discharged.

As for the other folks, those who are there for a single enlistment, who just want to get their training and get out, who have no concept of duty or service to country, I have nothing but contempt for... and that means you too Charlie Rangel.  These are where you see a lot of suicides coming from as these folks are usually unemployed, aimless, kids who join the military because they can't think of anything else better to do with their lives.  When they find out the duty sucks, the pay sucks, the work is long and hard AND you get to do it for little pay and while you have to leave your loved ones behind, they can't take it.

I think you are giving the media way too much credit.  A majority of soldiers know the media is against the war and will do what is necessary to take down Bush.  Is it wrong?  You bet, but I highly doubt soldiers are shooting themselves because Katie Couric does a BS news story or no-name AP reporter guy writes some opinion-filled piece of fiction.

Government via citizens need to pay military men and women more than a living wage.  Does anyone here remember the tragic story of the young lad, son of an American soldier Dad and an Irish (right from Ireland) Mother.  The boy killed himself because there was not enough food to go around for his siblings, so he ended his life.  This story was reported once and then no more was heard.

Anyone?