Government Study: Military Suicides Caused by Lack of Fish

This is beyond horrific. Government psychiatrists are actually suggesting fish oil as a simple fix to prevent military suicides:

This study, conducted by researchers from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse, may help identify a simple fix for service members going into harm’s way: supplementation with the highly unsaturated fatty acid DHA, which is not made by the body but comes from foods such as fatty fish, as well as eggs and dairy products that have supplemented with DHA.

Try telling that to Jared Hagemann’s wife that her husband’s suicide was not caused by the horrors that he witnessed during his eight combat deployments, but because he did not have tuna with his dinner.

Or try telling that to the family of Harry Lew that his suicide was not caused by his hazing by fellow Marines, but because of the low levels of Omega-3 in his MREs.

Or try telling Clay Hunt’s father that his son’s suicide could have been prevented if he had ingested enough fish oils.

I suppose then that the most sensible solution is to forcibly pump soldiers full of Omega-3 just as the military already does with unnecessary antibiotics and untested vaccines.  This study is a joke. The Uniformed Services University of Health Science is a joke. However, it is not a joke that the government sees its own suicidal soldiers as merely defective objects that can be repaired with chemical solutions. Not people subjected to psychological damage, but weapons that can be lubed with fish oil to get them properly operating again.

Soldier kills self rather than face 9th deployment

A soldier committed suicide rather than be deployed again:

Ashley says her husband Jared tried to come to grips with what he’d seen and done on his eight deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“And there’s no way that any God would forgive him - that he was going to hell,” says Ashley. “He couldn’t live with that any more.”

I understand that progressives and neoconservatives alike will not shed a tear for the dozens of brown-skinned Muslims that are dying everyday in their name (the stage collapse in the Indiana State Fair is garnering more coverage on CNN than the six deaths and 60 wounded that occurred last weekend all across Iraq), but at least they are still moved by the deaths of their own combat troops.

Of course, the connection between soldiers being sent to brutalize and kill foreigners, and the massive psychological damage it incurs within those that must carry out this gruesome task seems lost to the American people, or else they would not be so eager to send their young people to war.

We do not know what kind horrors Jared Hagemann must have seen in his eight deployments to the Middle East, except that he believed that there was “no way that any God would forgive him” for what he has seen and done -- and that he took his life rather than continue to participate in this injustice.

This was Hagemann’s antiwar protest, his tragic stand against our endless wars.

Should Christians volunteer for military service?

Q. Should Christians volunteer for military service? — CJ Scrofani, from Warrenton, VA.

A. That depends.  Right now?  No.  Other times?  Maybe.

The American military in its present capacity simply is not being used in just or moral manner — not to mention how far it has strayed from its constitutional purpose.  Because of this, I’d argue that a Christian cannot in good conscience join the military at this time.  I would also go so far as to argue that if a draft were to be reinstated now, conscientious objector status would be the minimum a Christian should do to avoid combat, and complete resistance a far better option.

On the other hand, if our military completely changed to a moral, constitutional, and strictly defensive force…well, at that point a Christian might join.  Whether the individual Christian should do so would be between him and his Lord, but — assuming those conditions were truly met — joining would not be out of the question.  I don’t think Christianity necessarily calls us to pacifism (though perhaps it may require that of some), and it is surely right to defend the innocent when actually attacked.

For further reading on this subject, I’d recommend you to Laurence Vance’s “Letter to a Christian Young Man Regarding Joining the Military,” a short article with which you may already be familiar.  I’m not always in 100% agreement with Vance, but in this case I am, and he makes my complete argument much better than I could.

Originally posted on my own blog here.

Avatar: A Pro-Freedom Movie

It's been out for a while, but I only just got around to seeing Avatar. Luckily for me, the local cinema is open even with the snowstorm here in D.C. (yes, the movie theater is open, but the Federal Government is closed).

I wasn't sure what to expect from it before going in. The day before, one of my Republican friends at school expressed disapproval of the movie. He didn't say it in so many words, but he implied that the movie was anti-military and overly environmentalist. But I felt it was a movie I should see anyways -- and I was right. Not only was it a decent movie, but I found its themes to be extremely pro-liberty.

[Read on only if you want spoilers!]