Say it to Veterans and Troops, General Chiarelli: War Is a ‘High-risk’, Deadly, Stupid Enterprise

– The politicians, generals (if there be a difference), and assorted hacks and kiss-asses appearing on the news shows to discuss the epidemic of suicide deflect, obfuscate, divert, and say anything but the truth: War will predictably lead to death and dismemberment and suicide is as predictable as bad weather. ‘You don’t want high rates of suicide, don’t have war.’ The day we hear this from a general or DoD hack is the day Satan gets mighty cold . –

Consider Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli explaining military and veteran suicide on ABC News This Week Sunday morning. 

Gen. Chiarelli blathers on in the predictable Army lexicon of blaming “high-risk” behavior for troop suicide as we wait for ABC News anchor Christiane Amanpour to ask the good general: ‘Hey, isn’t war a high-risk behavior, something we should avoid unless we absolutely have to wage it, and then mobilize the country behind it, committing full resources to the predictable trauma?’

One doubts that Chiarelli and other paid liars will spew his crap about high-risk behavior directly to the family and friends of Iraq war veteran Kortney ‘Kort’ Jensen who committed suicide in late July. Or any other suicide victim; pick a week, and you’ll find plenty. “Kort was never the same person after he came home,” said father-in-law, Grant Becherini. “It was a different Kort that came back. The real Kort died over there.” Not according to the Army.

The Army knows. After all, they wrote a whole report finding “high risk behavior” of troops at home and “erosion of adherence to existing Army policies and standards” are to blame.

Wow, high-risk behavior and those engaging in it are to blame. That’s just what Gen. Chiarelli said today.

For background on this crap, see Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of PTSD (Ford, Huber, and Meagher).