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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.

The U.S. Army tallied 38 confirmed or suspected suicides among its ranks last month--that’s among both active- and non-active-duty members including the Army National Guard and Army Reserve--the highest rate of suicide within the branch yet observed, further underscoring a mental health crisis that the services have yet to get a handle on. But help may be coming in an unlikely form: nasal spray.

A guaranteed successful run of 10,000 copies. Thank you, Uncle Sam! Now how about a 2nd printing? And what about the ebook?

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.

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.

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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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.

"The Army is on record saying we do not require any additional M1A2s," Davis Welch, deputy director of the Army budget office, said this month. Sean Kennedy, director of research for the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress should listen when one of the military services says no to more quipment.
"When an institution as risk averse as the Defense Department says they have enough tanks, we can probably believe them," Kennedy said.

Six Tyneside men have been arrested after filming themselves apparently burning copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.