In early July last year, a US soldier died from a non combat related incident. It was an odd story because Melissa Vasquez sustained a gunshot to the gut and her death was declared a possible suicide, under investigation.
Suicide reports from soldiers in Iraq and those who are returning for treatment at Walter Reed remind us that the price for decisions made by those elected to our highest levels of govenment continues to be paid with the lifeblood of our beautiful children.
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon - 1914