http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003625107Why Isn't the Press on a Suicide Watch?
You'd never know that at least 3% of all American deaths in Iraq are due to self-inflicted wounds. And that doesn't include the many vets who have killed themselves after returning home.
By Greg Mitchell
NEW YORK (August 13, 2007) -- Would it surprise you to learn that according to official Pentagon figures, at least 118 U.S. military personnel in Iraq have committed suicide since April 2003? That number does not include many unconfirmed reports, or those who served in the war and then killed themselves at home (a sizable, if uncharted, number).
While troops who have died in "hostile action" -- and those gravely injured and rehabbing at Walter Reed and other hospitals -- have gained much wider media attention in recent years, the suicides (about 3% of our overall Iraq death toll) remain in the shadows.
For whatever reason, I have always found soldiers who take their own lives especially tragic, though some might argue the opposite. Since the beginning of the war, I have written numerous columns on self-inflicted deaths, from average grunts to Col. Ted Westhusing (angry about contractor abuses), Alyssa Peterson (appalled by interrogation techniques) and Linda Michel (denied medication after returning home). But generally, the suicides get very little local or national attention.
In a sense, the press doesn't know what to do about them. Did they serve their country well, but ultimately let it down? Or is their country fully responsible for putting them in a suicide-producing situation in the first place and has blood on its hands?
One recent case illustrates some of the issues. The Pentagon revealed the death, joining more than 3,650 others, on July 5 in one of its pithy releases: "Pfc. Andrew T. Engstrom, 22, of Slaton, Texas, died July 4 in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. His death is under investigation."
Investigations can last months, but this time Engstrom's parents were told the truth very quickly (this is not always the case). Families, for multiple reasons no doubt, often try to hide suicides from the press and public. We are usually informed that the death was "non-hostile," which also covers the many killed in vehicle or gun accidents. But in this case, a reporter for The Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal, Marlena Hartz, learned from Engstrom's fiance -- and a family friend that his parents had been told he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound "in the head."
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These sad events are often covered extensively by local papers saluting their hometown heroes. Do the families in these cases usually request a blackout? Hartz, the Lubbock reporter, tells me, "We are just waiting for the official report on his death to be released by the military. ... The family has not embraced coverage of Andrew's death, and therefore, our coverage has been limited." Locally, I can understand it, but there's no excuse for the lack of national attention to the number of suicides among U.S. troops.
Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's editor. His collection of columns on Iraq and the media, "So Wrong for So Long," will be published in March.
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