U.S. Troop Suicides Surging
A new AP report found that active-duty troops are now committing suicide at a rate of nearly one a day.
| Posted Friday, June 8, 2012, at 10:36 AM
Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images.
American troops are committing suicide at the rate of nearly one a day, according to a new report by the Associated Press. That's the highest rate since the nation launched it's "war on terror" more than a decade ago.
Using statistics from the Pentagon, the AP counts 154 suicides in the first 155 days of 2012. The suicide rate for troops leveled out in 2010 and 2011, the AP explains, so the current surge caught officials by surprise. The rate is nearly 50 percent higher than the rate of American forces killed in Afghanistan for the same time period, and 18 percent higher than the suicide rate among troops for the same portion of 2011.
No one seems to have a good explanation for the increase. Although data suggests that troops with multiple combat tours are more likely to commit suicide, a significant portion of the suicides were by soldiers who hadn't deployed at all. Other explanations offered by the AP, based on recent studies, include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, drug abuse, and financial stress.
Read the full report over at the Associated Press.
