War's Suicide pact

From AP

More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.

According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans.

At some point I hope someone notices that "serving" your country by killing little brown people in foreign lands does a disservice to both the little brown people, whom we murder, as well as the poor individuals we've decided to make do the murdering. Why? Because when you murder folks, you lose that sense of common humanity, your conscience--if you have one--bothers you--that's what war does. Some people are okay with this. We call them animals. They usually grow up to be successful Generals. Others aren't okay with it. Sometimes they are so not okay, they kill themselves out of searing regret.

That's why--not to put too harsh a point on this-- wars of convenience are extraordinarily bad ideas. And people who suggest that wars are somehow appropriate or effective reactions ought to be forced to wear dirty underwear on their heads and chained to a bunk somewhere very hot without air condition and laughed at for the remainder of their pathetically limited cro-magnon lives.