US soldier returning from deployment tells his mother, "Mom, I'm a murderer" before he kills himself

[JohnyCanuck]

From the LA Times

A military base 'on the brink'
The toll of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is catching up with the Washington state communities near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the form of suicides, slayings and more.

Mary Coghill Kirkland said she asked her son, 21-year-old Army Spc. Derrick Kirkland, what was wrong as soon as he came back from his first deployment to Iraq in 2008.

He had a ready answer: "Mom, I'm a murderer."

He told her how his team had kicked in the door of an Iraqi house and quickly shot a man inside. With the man lying wounded on the floor, "my son got ordered by his sergeant to stand on his chest to make him bleed out faster," Kirkland said. "He said, 'We've got to move, and he's got to die before we move.'"

Not long after, Derrick told her, he had fallen asleep on guard duty, awakening as a car was driving through his checkpoint. He yelled for it to stop, but the family in the car spoke no English. "So my son shot up the car," she said.

snip

Kirkland relates the remaining years of her son's life as if reading a script: He was depressed by his wife's request for a divorce. On a second deployment in Iraq, he was caught putting a gun in his mouth and evacuated on suicide watch to Germany. There, he tried to overdose on pills. He was flown back to his home base here in Washington state. After a brief psychiatric evaluation, he was left alone in his room. He hanged himself with a cord in his closet.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military-stress-20111226,0,399102,full.story

[rocktivity]

1. And this is just the beginning

Will our commander-in-chief be re-deploying them to Afghanistan or Iran before it spreads?


rocktivity

[roamer65]

2. re-deployment to the coming ME war (aka WW3)

Looks like SecDef Panetta has given Israel the "green light" for an attack on Iran.

http://www.debka.com/article/21585/

[agentS]

5. Just read that article- this is the scariest part

[quote]4. It is the last moment for the US to avert the Middle East's plunge into a nuclear race.
Dec. 5, the former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal said that after failing to persuade Israel and Iran to give up their nuclear weapons, Riyadh had no option but to develop its own; and Turkish leader have been saying to the Obama administration that if Iran has a nuclear weapon, so too will Turkey.
The administration is now facing the bleak realization that a disastrous nuclear race in this volatile region can be deflected only by military action to cut down and destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program.[/quote]

Iran and Israel having nukes isn't so bad. Other countries getting nukes is worse.
Is it worth wrecking the world economy to stop a ME nuke fight that would also wreck the world economy? I hope 2012 gives people time to think about this and cool down a bit.

We don't need another war in the ME and we certainly don't want a massive refugee crisis.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. FYI debka is as reliable as North Korean news

if they got anything right, I will be shocked.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. It's not the beginning

It's not even close to the beginning. It may be the middle or if we're lucky it's the last quarter, but I doubt it. This has been going on for years, and years and years already. It's just too many people prefer not to see it or hear it.

[sabrina 1]

3. Heartbreaking. Suicides accounted for more Iraq troop deaths last year I read, than

the actual battlefield for the first time. I do not remember the exact numbers, but over 400 suicides and slightly fewer deaths in Iraq.

These are the casualties that are not counted among the victims of these horrible wars.

I guess they cannot train everyone to lose their conscience try as they do. Another awful tragedy that never should have happened.

And we have people cheering on another war, this time in Iran. I have an idea. Those who support all these wars should be required to go fight in them AND pay for them with their tax dollars. Those who do not, should get tax decuctions.

[duhneece]

11. And, for some, suicide will come 20 or 30 years later nt

[southernyankeebelle]

6. This is what happens with multi-deployments. So damn sad. This should of never ever

happen. These young people have to live with the consequence of what happens. My father-in-law told me once you don't understand what happens when you put a decent kid in a bad situation. The best kid can do the worse things and he would never think of doing it back home. So true.

[ChillbertKChesterton]

7. Many soldiers have a hard time dealing with the effects of war.

They should get the help they need.

Many soldiers have turned their feelings of guilt into pro-active engagements, such as this man:

It takes work, but soldiers who become aware of the moral dimension of their actions can cope with it by speaking out against these atrocities, and trying to prevent them from happening more.

[Amonester]

8. "to stand on his chest to make him bleed out faster" (Human Rights Champions) :(

That one must really have left its life-long mark...

Human Rights Champs, aren't they.

[Zorra]

9. Occupy. Help stop the 1% wars for profit. nt

[Rex]

12. That is so sad.

[Hotler]

13. k&r n/t