[antimedia] antimedia: The media just can't let go....

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Posted by antimedia:
The media just can't let go....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1202963060.shtml


   ....of the [1]troubled war vet meme.

     National Guard and Reserve troops who have fought in Iraq and
     Afghanistan make up more than half of veterans who committed
     suicide after returning home from those wars, according to new
     government data obtained by The Associated Press.
     A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of
     deaths among veterans of both wars -- obtained exclusively by The
     AP -- found that Guard or Reserve members were 53 percent of the
     veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began,
     through the end of 2005.

   So how serious a problem is it?

     The VA has said there does not appear to be an epidemic of suicide
     among returning veterans, and that suicide among the Iraq and
     Afghanistan veterans is comparable to the same demographic group in
     the general population. (Emphasis mine.)

   Ah, so, was it the unrelenting cruelty of war that caused them to
   commit suicide? Or the unrelenting reality of statistical probability?
   Look, every suicide is a tragedy -- military and non military, combat
   and non combat motivated. I'm extremely thankful that the Pentagon and
   the VA are taking the problem seriously and doing something about it.
   But not one shred of evidence has yet been provided that proves that
   it is exposure to war or the horrors of war that motivates these
   suicides. In fact, the statistical normalcy of these numbers argues
   precisely the opposite. If non military civilians commit suicide at
   the same rate as combat military, then the evidence that war is
   causing the problem simply isn't there.
   Not that this reality will change the media's attitude or its
   reporting one iota.

     However, an escalating suicide rate in the Army, as well as
     high-profile suicides such as the death of Joshua Omvig -- an Iowa
     Reservist who shot himself in front of his mother in December 2005
     after an 11-month tour in Iraq -- have alarmed some members of
     Congress and mental health advocates.

   Of course we've dealt with the "escalating suicide rate in the Army"
   [2]before showing that "Compared to their age peers, military
   personnel are significantly less likely to commit suicide."
   The media - refusing to allow the facts to get in the way of a good
   story that fits their liberal and anti-military disposition.
   Tags: [3]military [4]suicides [5]statistics [6]reality

References

   1. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003709846&imw=Y
   2. http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1201838743.shtml
   3. http://technorati.com/tag/military
   4. http://technorati.com/tag/suicides
   5. http://technorati.com/tag/statistics
   6. http://technorati.com/tag/reality