America / An Empire On The Ropes

AMERICA / AN EMPIRE ON THE ROPES

America's Armies are stretched to the point that more US military personnel have committed suicide than died in action ~ the Empire is on the ropes and the knockout punch will be moral and financial bankruptcy: Allen L Roland

This is the seventh anniversary of George W Bush's FOLLY ~ the blatant illegal attack and occupation of Iraq ~ which to date has resulted in the following staggering statistics:

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,366,350" www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq: 4,703
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 1,692 http://icasualties.org/oef/

But here is a shocking statistic that you won't hear in most western news media: over the past nine years, more US military personnel have taken their own lives than have died in action in either the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. These are official figures from the US Department of Defense, yet somehow they have not been deemed newsworthy to report. Last year alone, more than 330 serving members of the US armed forces committed suicide - more than the 320 killed in Afghanistan and the 150 who fell in Iraq (see wsws.org).

Since 2001, when Washington launched its “war on terror”, there has been a dramatic yearly increase in US military suicides, particularly in the army, which has borne the brunt of fighting abroad. Last year saw the highest total number since such records began in 1980. Prior to 2001, the suicide rate in the US military was lower than that for the general US population; now, it is nearly double the national average.

Why ? These soldiers have been little more than political pawns for White house Middle East power games and financial maneuvering and they know it. As Finian Cunningham writes in Global Research " In their guts, these US soldiers must know ~ as many other ordinary people around the world do ~ that these wars are nothing but a desperate, pathological bid by a dying power to salvage its crumbling empire ~ an empire that enriches a tiny elite and impoverishes the majority. Is it any wonder that many of them simply lose the will to live? "
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16916

What is even more disturbing , as Cunningham points out, is that the official figures only count victims of suicide among serving personnel. " Not included are the many more veterans ~ officially classed a civilians ~ who take their own lives. "

The US Department of Veteran Affairs calculates that over 6,000 former service personnel commit suicide every year. I work with Veterans with PTSD and every one of them has, at one time or another, contemplated suicide. Almost everyone has commented that the only thing that kept them alive, in that moment of aloneness and inner isolation, was the love for a partner, child or friend which served as a life preserver on a choppy dangerous dark sea with a powerful and deep undertow.

Love joins even the most wounded heart, to not only what is deepest within themselves, but to another life fulfilling choice versus self sabotage or destruction ~ for without love true healing cannot occur.

As such, by treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a Post Traumatic Heart Disorder ~ self healing occurs as rapidly as the client takes responsibility for love and when that occurs ~ the healing is always permanent. See FRANK'S STORY / A PTSD SURVIVOR CONQUERS UNWORTHINESS
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/03/31.html

As a concerned Veteran, I feel our growing military and veteran suicide rate is an obvious symptom that our Empire is on the ropes and just one punch away from being down for the count ~ with that punch being moral and financial bankruptcy.

We can no longer use force to get our way in the world for our world is already interconnected and the strong innate evolutionary tide of mutual cooperation is increasingly making its presence felt.

Orwell sums up our dilemma ~ "A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial, that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud."

Force is all we have left but it has been so greatly diminished by fraud that we now have become a staggering modern day Don Quixote flailing away at the windmills of the evil world that we ourselves helped to create.

Thanks to Bush and Cheney, the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a massive waste of human life and treasure. We cannot let the Obama administration make this same mistake again in Afghanistan ~ which they apparently are.

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is also available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY