Our
Marines: Ridden Hard & Put Away Wet - Granny Jane
17 May 2010By Jane
Stillwater
Now here's a touchy subject -- recently there's been
spate of suicides by Marines who have just returned
home from Iraq and Afghanistan. But here's the really
touchy part: These suicides have all taken place on
stateside Marine bases. One Marine recently escaped
from a hospital at Camp Lejeune, got hold of a gun
somehow and shot himself right there on the base. And
another Marine at Quantico jumped in front of a train.
However, the Marine high command at these bases is
fully aware of this problem and is doing something
about it. According to one official Marine
publication, "Suicide is the second leading cause of
death in the Marine Corps. Even one death by suicide
is too many. It is a tragic and preventable loss,
causing untold grief to loved ones and units, and is
of highest concern to the public, legislators, the
Commandant, and all Marines. In addition, suicide and
suicidal behavior at all levels can take a tremendous
toll on the readiness and resources of the unit
involved. For all these reasons, suicide awareness,
prevention, and intervention must be of highest
priority to all Marines, and especially Marine
leaders."
Returning troops at the major stateside Marine bases
are now being routinely shown training films and
PowerPoint presentations regarding how to deal with
suicidal tenancies -- but still. You gotta be pretty
damn desperate to jump in front of a train. How many
more of our Marines are that desperate? And if so, how
did they get that way?
Here's my personal opinion, based on time spent in
Iraq embedded with the Marines. I may be wrong about
this, but here it is. "American Marines compose the
finest fighting force EVER. Forget about Romans and
Spartans. Our guys are the best." So what happened?
Why all the suicides? "Because our Marines are being
stretched far too thin. American Marines are being
asked to defend the interests of an international
corporate structure that has its octopus-like
tentacles spread out all over the entire globe. That's
far too much territory to expect even our fabulous
Marines to defend."
But what inflames me even more is that the
international corporate structures that our Marines
are so gallantly defending aren't even American
corporations! Perhaps one day long ago they USED to be
American corporations -- but that was back in the days
before outsourcing.
Our Marines are being asked to stick their fingers in
[dams] all over the world so that wealthy
international corporations all over the world can reap
the profits. It's not even Americans who are reaping
the profits any more. No wonder our Marines are so
stretched. They are daily and constantly fighting the
never-ending battles of Endless War so that men who
owe NO allegiance to America -- or American workers or
American Marines either -- can make grossly
disproportional profits off of others' pain.
Our Marines are being ridden hard and put away wet so
that corporations who don't even pay taxes in America
can still have their billionaire bottom lines
protected.
And our Marines do this, day after day, year after
year, serving hard time in places like Iraq and
Afghanistan and Kenya. And WHY do they keep doing it?
Because they are Marines -- the best fighting force
EVER. And our Marines' abilities are not only being
wasted by being spread too thin throughout the world
to the point that when (not if) we will someday need
them here at home, there may well be too few of them
left to defend America proper and it will be too late.
The international corporations benefit from our
Marines' presence. And the Marine Corps pays the
price. And, apparently, individual Marines are paying
an even greater price. This fractured practice of
using and misusing our Marines has just got to stop.
PS: According to the Jacksonville Daily News, "Camp
Lejeune Marines...in the aftermath of the death of a
colleague who shot himself during a police chase
aboard base Monday said instead of the needed
psychiatric treatment they sought they were given a
cocktail of antidepressants and sent back to work."
Yes, nine long years of constant war does have a
tendency to grind our troops down. Even World War II
didn't last that long.
And we may have unearthed just the tip of the iceberg
here. According to Jacksonville's www.jdnews.com, "A
total of 48,086 mental health related visits for all
Naval Hospital clinics aboard Camp Lejeune were
recorded in fiscal year 2009. In fiscal year 2010,
there have been 26,609 mental health related visits
through March 31, said Lt.j.g. Tony Skrypek,
department head for TRICARE Operations at Naval
Hospital."
Also, according to Salon magazine, PTSDs may still not
be getting properly treated at Camp Lejuene -- despite
all the recent PowerPoint presentations going on.
"Internal documents and e-mails show that Navy
officials unfavorably doctored a psychiatrist’s
performance record after he blew the whistle on what
he said was dangerously inept management of care for
Marines suffering combat stress at Camp Lejeune, N.C."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/01/31/camp_lejeune
PSS: And here's a quote from my usually reliable
Marine Mom source: "I've heard several Marines say
that Afghanistan is the 'Worst place on earth'. So
instead of sending our Marines out to fight in the
countryside over there, let's start sending out the
Afghan Army and Afghan police troops that we have been
training for approximately 10 years -- and leave the
U.S. troops back on base."
Marine Mom also sent me this video about the recent
Nashville flood disaster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI.
"Shouldn't some of our money have gone to help
Nashville -- instead of pouring billions into
Afghanistan?"
PPPS: The Marines aren't the only ones being ridden
hard and put away wet. The American people are too.
While corporatist lobbies are happily siphoning
America's wealth off in order to protect their own
interests, we could have used all that money on
preventive infrastructure measures back here at home,
so that the Nashville flood could have been prevented
-- not to mention the Ohio flood and Katrina.
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