Soldier Suicides: Are They Really Combat Related?

First a disclaimer about myself. I’m a twenty year veteran of the Army that saw next to no real combat. The closest I came was a few days during “Just Cause” in Panama where I was stationed as permanent party, so I didn’t deploy to Panama. I was actually living there when the Invasion happened. After the first few days when the fighting was winding down, as a Spanish speaker, my primary duty was to find the beer store in each town we landed in and buy beer. The commanding general had closed the on base liquor stores. I did spend quite a bit of time in areas classified as hostile fire zones, but not while actual fighting was going on in my area. So I don’t really have any direct experience with what the soldiers of today are going through.

I’m asking the question above because I believe it’s the fault of the way our children are being brought up that is the real reason they are committing suicide. The cliche I’ve heard most is we’re wrapping our kids in bubble wrap in order to protect them from the outside world. Even in TV and radio commercials about children’s products you hear the mother say “I’d wrap my kid in bubble wrap if I could.” I shudder when I hear that because it means that that child isn’t experiencing the real world.

The child next enters, in most cases, the public education system. My first wife was an all the way to the bone leftist. I won’t go into how and why we were together, but we sent our son to a Montessori school, which in hindsight I now know is even worse. But I digress. Public schools now refuse to encourage competition. In fact if a student shows an interest in excelling over his or her peers it’s in most cases, I believe, discouraged. This is done in the name of self-esteem. We can’t have somebody doing better than the others in the group because somebody’s feelings could get hurt. This falls in line with reports that school systems are on their way to doing away with grades. Again, this done in the desire to protect self-esteem.

The public schools are further separating our children from the real world. How will these children react when they’re on their own and they encounter someone that is willing to challenge them for something they are trying for. Will they compete, or will they back down? If the indoctrination they have received in school is successful I think I know what the answer will be. They will retreat. This leads us right into the topic of the day – “bullying.”

Every day it seems there is another report of some case of bullying in school. The reason for the bullying is immaterial. It’s how the children are taught to react to bullying. Are the children taught to stand up for themselves? Of course not. That could cause conflict or (God) forbid, competition. They are taught to retreat and find some authority figure. The children have been conditioned to think that help will always come. The bully knows better, and knows they have a field full of sheep. Those of us from a previous generation know that most bullies are cowards. If someone that’s being bullied actually stands up to them they’ll stop. But now even the teachers, who for the most part are probably from my generation, can’t or won’t deal with the bullies. Furthermore, because of school system rules or policies don’t advise bullied students on the time honored ways to deal with bullies. Again, because they can’t promote competition.

Everything I’ve stated above has come from anecdotal evidence. I haven’t linked to any studies, because every study I’ve read contradicts what I’ve proposed above. Every story I read in the MSM demands that we find new ways to protect our children (from the real world?).

If what I have supposed is true, is this preparing our young men and women for the horrors they will face in combat? I have explained what I think are the problems in our education system that I think is contributing to the increase in soldier suicides. Next I will throw my thoughts around on sports for children, and other social interactions that our children are now exposed and conditioned for.