Defence suicide and sick puppies

ALMOST 80 members of Australia’s defence force have killed themselves since 1997. Oh my god, that’s awfull!

…opposition defence personnel spokesman Mark Bishop said the suicides were a result of defence culture. He said the suicide rate should force the Government into releasing the findings of a review of suicides.

No it shouldn’t. Reading on we find that the national rate is 1.6 of all deaths while the ADF is about half that. What’s his bloody point. He has taken a positive stat and reversed it and then pointed out why this stat is bad. False premise springs to mind. Sexual harrassment is a problem in the ADF! In a force the size of the ADF, with it’s tens of thousands of mainly young, fit men and woman there has been 107 cases of harrassment. 107! My God, I wonder how they get time to soldier. Well, actually, it’s only 88 substantiated cases but let’s not let exceptionally good figures ruin a good beat-up. I’m neither making light of suicides nor sexual harrassment but could we have some balance. With both the listed figures being less than national averages the Senator could have just as well congratulated the ADF considering they are going through a difficult time at the moment with deployments all over the world as they fight terrorists and help stabalize our volatile island cousins. This subject was reported three days ago but with other matters on my plate I hadn’t posted this piece. It is more relevant now as I have been a part of a ex-service network email distribution that made much of the Bishop report. Of late I’ve been receiving emails extremely critical of the government from an ex member of my battalion who forwards emails from one Keith Tennant, an advocate of sorts for the ex service community. I received one last night and was so moved as to answer in a theme that was critical of the political posturing contained within. Amongst other things, I said;

Your links on your website detract from your purpose. Linking to activist sites, 9/11 conspiracy theorists and people like Margo Kingston clearly put you in that angry left wing area that sees no good in the country, no good in the military and definitely no good in our current fight against terrorism. My opinion, after reading your website, is that your political leanings detract from your mission. I’m not so much questioning your work but the more the angry political attacks…they can’t serve much purpose, they annoy me and I’m representative of your target.

I also took him to task for his email signature that says;

Veterans Will Continue To Advise Young Australians Not To Enlist In The Military Under Current Circumstances

There was some to’ing and fro’ing of emails that culminated in my being blackbanned from his email list. Keith’s final email read;

You really are one sick puppy. So, anybody who doesn’t fit your vision of the world and your profile of what is right and proper in Gillett’s mad head is a commo and rabble rouser. and …well, just about anything else I suppose. Of course you wouldn’t at all be one of those mad, war mongering right wingers who want to send everybody else’s kids and grandkids off to the latest War EXCEPT YOUR OWN, would you? With lunatics like you around I marvel how we ever gained any respect at all and how Governments have ever listened to us. You are blacklisted so don’t bother replying. We are busy every day and have been for years fighting for the entitlements and rights of lunatics like you. My advice to you is…….. Stick a tampon up your arse, light the wick and blow your brains out.

Which pretty well proves, in an ad hominem sort of way, the point of my earlier email. Keith’s web page, The Aussie Digger is loaded with compassion for his fellow ex serviceman..you might like to drop in – I’m sure he would appreciate the extra traffic. I received another answer to my email that raised points in a rational and calm manner and I replied in a similar vein. Some members of the veterans community are concerned about suicide and I am one of those. I did some quick reading here and at the ABS on the subject of suicide, or more relevant to this issue, youth suicide and found the reports do not paint a rosy picture. Suicide has touched me personally and it can only be defined as ‘painful’ and raises reflections on ‘what could I have done?’ and the answer is all too often…nothing. Notwithstanding, I don’t think the government should necessarily be hauled over the coals for it. I’m of the opinion that there needs to be a precondition of some physciatric disorder that prevails regardless of profession that can be triggered by, what to many others, is an inconsequential event. So even though good works are being carried out by the military and society generally to alleviate the problem, it will always exist and we need to keep that in mind instead of mindlessly thowing accusations around. Youth suicide is an across border problem. It is not a pretty picture but it does suggest that the Army doen’t stand alone with it’s suicide problem. No one carries press about suicide rates for wharfies, or airline pilots or rural workers as there are no such figures readily available and it’s a good way to bash the government or generals anyway. UPDATE: I sent Keith an email linking to this post but he was right, I’m black banned and the email was rejected.