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(CNSNews.com) - The number of suicides among U.S. Army active duty and reserve personnel in 2012 is higher than the total combined military fatalities from Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan over the same timeframe.

“Every suicide in our ranks is a tragic loss for the Army family, adversely affecting the readiness of our Army,” Lt. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel, said in a Department of Defense release.

Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

Army officials say they don't have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.

Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.

Even though the the Army is cutting its budget and slashing 8,700 jobs, they are hiring “internment / resettlement specialists.” In fact they are interested in applicants from among enlisted “Active Duty” as well as “Army Reserve,” which I suppose suggests that they need 'em bad. And just in time for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.

Metfloquine, also called Lariam, is used to protect soldiers from malaria, but has been known to have side effects including paranoia and hallucinations. It has been implicated in a number of suicides and homicides, including within the U.S. military ranks. In 2009, the army decreed that soldiers who’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries should not be given the drug. But this month, just nine days after Bales’ shooting rampage, the army issued an emergency decree calling for the review to be expedited.

Is Austerity - or Decades of Awful Governance - Responsible for Greek Suicides?

"Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece," blares a CNN.com article detailing an apparent increase in suicides in the European country arguably in the worst fiscal situation. I say apparently because the only hard facts in the story are these: "According to the health ministry data, the suicide rate jumped about 40% in the first five months of 2011 compared with a year earlier." Are suicides up in 2012, compared either to 2011 or 2010? No word.

Army Reserve presentation calls Christians ‘extremists’

A U.S. Army Reserve training brief on extremism and extremist organizations puts evangelical Christianity at the top of the list of groups soldiers should watch out for, and avoid.

Government burning of books - In a statement to CNN, Cunningham said defense officials observed the September 20 destruction of about 9,500 copies of Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's new memoir "Operation Dark Heart."

Four soldiers from the Fort Hood Army base in Texas -- all decorated veterans from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan -- died in the past week, a Fort Hood spokesman said Wednesday.

Army Labeled Evangelicals as Religious Extremists

A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned.
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