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Saturday, May 17, 2014

OMG Army using pushups against suicides!

WTF! Are they out of their minds? Do they understand how detached from reality they are?

To curb military suicides, does money go for sit-ups or psychologists?
By Greg Jaffe
The Washington Post
Published: May 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's Special Operations Command has come up with an unorthodox and aggressive plan to deal with the alarming rise in suicides among America's top commandos.

The premise: A strong, resilient body will lead to a stronger, more resilient mind.

The problem: Lawmakers who are being asked to fund it think it is a misguided idea.

In the context of the massive defense budget, the disagreement over a relatively small amount of money — about $23 million — has turned into a surprisingly heated spat between lawmakers and a command that for the past 12 years has been accustomed to having the Pentagon and Congress grant its requests.

The suicide rate among special operators, which include the Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Beret Special Forces, is said by commanders to be at its highest level since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and now exceeds the levels for regular forces, according to lawmakers. Last month, Adm. William McRaven, who leads the Tampa, Fla.-based command, said in a speech that reducing the suicide rate is his "number-one priority."

To deal with the problem, McRaven and other top special operations officials broke from the playbook used by their brethren in the regular Army and Marine Corps, who have poured money into hiring extra mental health counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists. Instead, the command asked Congress for $48 million in 2015 to hire physical therapists, dieticians, sports psychologists and strength and conditioning specialists to work with troops.
read more here

Are they this clueless that what they have been doing has caused the problem in the first place? Suicides were lower before they started to "do something" about them!

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