Military Suicides On The Rise

War is hell. There's no doubt about it. It's a nasty business, but when gets so that this is happening then maybe some changers are needed.

Repeated and ever-longer war-zone tours are putting increasing pressure on military families, the Army said Thursday, helping push soldier suicides to a record rate.

There were 99 Army suicides last year — nearly half of them soldiers who hadn't reached their 25th birthdays, about a third of them serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

There was a plan on the Senate floor that would have give soldiers the same amount of time of rest that they serve in the battlefield. So, if a soldier is in Iraq for six months he'd get six months of rest before he has to return. But it was voted down by Republicans. Now, I don't know if it was a bill all on it's own or if it was attached to something else, but knowing how Congress works, it was probably attached to something else that Republicans didn't like. If that's the case, then someone should re-introduce it as a stand alone bill and get it passed.