Politicizing the Military

Of course, the anti-war left would accuse the Bush Administration of doing this; but since this is a "right-wing" blog, and given that I am post-dating this as my computer is still out of commission and I'm typing from an undisclosed location, I will pick on the lefties.

Like the desertion rate I reported on a couple of years ago along with flag-draped coffins, G.I. Bills and Veterans issues, (with many exceptions, certainly from those lefties who really do care about our soldiers) the real goal of anti-war groups to bring these issues up is to will us into a defeat and as a political means of delegitimizing this particular war.

By way of Michael Medved:

Friday, June 06, 2008
Soldiers
and Suicide

Posted by: Michael
Medved at 1:03 AM
Leading media outlooks love to portray military personnel as victims, including a recent news item with the alarming headline: “Army Suicides Increased in 2007.” Sixteen paragraphs highlighted the fact that 115 members of the armed forces took their own lives last year, compared to 52 in 2001. While the Associated Press sought to connect these grim statistics to the war on terror, Army records show that 65 percent of suicides stemmed from broken relationships, not battlefield trauma. Moreover, the end of the news story noted that the civilian suicide rate – when adjusted for similar age and gender mixes–was actually higher than the rate in the military: 19.5—as opposed to the troops’ 18.5—per 100,000. In other words, despite alarmist packaging, serving in the armed forces makes you less likely, not more likely, to take your own life.