Patters

Obama urged to reverse policy on no condolence letters for suicides - CNN.com

Washington (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current "insensitive" policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide.

A letter signed by 11 senators -- 10 Democrats and one Republican -- and sent Wednesday urges the president to "take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence" to families of troops who killed themselves.

The policy, which goes back several presidents, has been the subject of protest by military families. CNN first reported in 2009 about the family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, who killed himself while serving in Iraq.

chicowalker

What possible reason is there not to send a letter?

I wonder how non-military suicide rates for the age group compare. ("... every 36 hours a service member kills himself or herself..." is a meaningless comment in and of itself, given not only the lack of comparison but also the omission of the total # of service members)

IcyPatriot

Interesting ... first I hear of this ... seems insensitive ... I hope Obama reverses it.

Nikolai

It's a real problem. The stats are tragic and should have been included.

Suicide Rivals The Battlefield In Toll On U.S. Military : NPR

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DarrylS

As much as I agree, if he does so more fodder for the right.

Somehow this will be viewed as a sign of weakness on his part... and will get a lot of play by the right wing mediots.

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Patters

I really wonder when the "long-standing" policy was implemented, and why it has taken so long for this issue to be raised. It's absolutely awful that we ask people to endure life and death stress to protect our country, and should the stress overwhelm them and drive them to suicide, then their families no longer deserve condolences from the commander in chief. It's hard to comprehend this sort of callousness. It sounds like something that may have come about when Teddy Roosevelt was president, and the image of "manliness" was at it's most retarded.

Harry Boy

I would applaud him, it would be the decent thing to do but he is a strange man, we will see.

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chicowalker

I'm sure some would try (read some of the comments at the link), but it's tough to spin that one negatively, and easy to defend against.

Real World

My guess is that the original intent was/is to paint killing yourself as dishonorable. Psycologically, that might make a difference for some soldiers who might be teetering on the edge. Just a guess.

I also think it hasn't been a real issue because we simply haven't seen the suicide rates increase like they have in a long, long time. It simply wasn't as noticable before, as it is now.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

patsfan13

Don't know the reason for the policy. Looking at the Chart it seems that the rates are statistically the same during peacetime and higher during wartime especally among services with a large infantries. I hope we are trying to understand how to identify and help soldiers who are liable to kill themselves due to the added stress.

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