But Under President Bush we have put our Troops in Two Wars for over Seven Years... and it has taken its toll on them...

from The Wall Street Journal

An American soldier killed four of his fellow U.S. troops before committing suicide at a U.S. base in Baghdad, the Pentagon said. The shooting occurred about 2 p.m. at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124204950681706721.html#mod=djemalertNEWS

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U.S. Soldiers' Mental Health
Gaps in Mental Health Screening Persist For Troops Headed to Iraq, Afghanistan
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN The Hartford Courant

Chad Barrett had attempted suicide and was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder by the time his unit prepared for a third combat tour in Iraq. A psychiatrist had recommended the staff sergeant be separated from the military for his own good, but Barrett wanted to stay with his Army colleagues.And when it came time for deployment, Army commanders were happy to oblige.Barrett, who had spent a dozen years in the Army, shipped out in December 2007 with prescription bottles of Klonopin for anxiety, Pamelor for depression and migraines, and Lunesta and Ambien for sleep problems. But the drugs did not control his despair and mood swings. And less than two months after arriving in Iraq, Barrett popped open some of the bottles and committed suicide by overdose.

He was 35."I understand that they have a mission, and mission comes first. I completely get that," said Barrett's widow, Shelby Barrett, from her home near Fort Collins in Colorado. "But they took a soldier who was not mentally capable of doing the things that he thought he was capable of doing. And I think they took him just as another boot on the ground. They needed their numbers."

Related links
US soldier guns down 5 fellow soldiers at counseling center on US base in Baghdad
2006 Courant Investigation: Mentally Unfit To Fight

Just today, an American soldier was in custody after killing five fellow troops at Baghdad's Camp Liberty in a shooting that CNN says took place at a military clinic for treating stress.

Since the beginning of the war on terror, more than 210 service members have killed themselves while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the suicide rate has risen significantly since the beginning of those campaigns.

Army wide, there have been 64 confirmed or suspected suicides in the first four months of this year, with the suicide rate among soldiers now exceeding the demographically adjusted civilian rate. READ MORE AT THE LINK ABOVE

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Army and Agency Will Study Rising Suicide Rate Among Soldiers
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/us/30soldiers.html
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: October 29, 2008
Conceding it needed outside help in figuring out why the suicide rate among service members was rising, the Army announced plans on Wednesday to collaborate with the National Institute of Mental Health in an ambitious five-year project to identify the causes and risk factors of suicide.
The Army will make thousands of soldiers available to researchers for interviews and will provide access to its many databases, including those with medical, personnel, criminal and deployment histories. Researchers will draw from a cross section of the Army and will include soldiers who have just joined the service or are training for war and those who have returned from war.
Rather than wait until the study is completed, the National Institute of Mental Health will provide the Army with new information as researchers find it in the hopes of preventing soldier suicides. MORE AT LINK ABOVE


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Army official: Suicides in January 2009 'terrifying'
Story Highlights
Two dozen soldiers believed to have killed themselves in January, official says
The number of likely suicides more than those killed in combat last month
Army psychologist says long, cold months of winter might have contributed to spike
Army takes rare step of releasing figures for month rather than waiting till end of year

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/05/army.suicides/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One week after the U.S. Army announced record suicide rates among its soldiers last year, the service is worried about a spike in possible suicides in the new year.

If reports of suicides are confirmed, more soldiers will have taken their lives in January than died in combat.

The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone -- six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.
The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.

If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January.
"This is terrifying," an Army official said. "We do not know what is going on."
Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said that the long, cold months of winter could be a major contributor to the January spike.
"There is more hopelessness and helplessness because everything is so dreary and cold," she said. MORE AT LINK ABOVE