COMMENTARY: Cocky ignorance

“I look forward to your swift response.”

With wars going on in both Iraq and Afghanistan, a defense secretary might have some other things to look after before making a “swift response” to a political candidate.

Because of the widely publicized statistic that suicide rates among American troops have gone up, Mr. Obama says he wants the defense secretary to tell him, swiftly:

“What changes will you make to provide our soldiers in theater with real access to mental health care?

“What training has the Pentagon provided our medical professionals in theater to recognize who might be at risk of committing suicide?

“What assistance are you providing families here at home to recognize the risk factors for suicide, so that they may help our service members get the assistance they need?

“What programs has the Pentagon implemented to help reduce the stigma attached to mental health concerns so that service members are more likely to seek appropriate care?”

All this sounds very plausible, as so many other things Mr. Obama says sound plausible. But, like so many of those other things, it will not stand up under scrutiny.

What has been widely publicized in the media is that suicides among American troops have gone up. What has not been widely publicized is that this higher suicide rate is still not as high as the suicide rate among demographically comparable civilians.

No one needs to be reminded that suicide is a serious matter, whether among soldiers or civilians. But the media have managed to create the impression that it is military service overseas which is the cause of suicides among American troops, when civilians of the same ages and other demographic characteristics commit suicide at an even higher rate at home.

Moreover, this is not the first time military service overseas has been portrayed in the media as the cause of problems that are worse in the civilian population at home.

The New York Times led the way in making homicides committed by returning military veterans a Page One story, blaming this on “combat trauma and the stress of deployment.” Yet the New York Post showed that the homicide rate among returning veterans is a fraction of the homicide rate among demographically comparable civilians.

In other words, if military veterans are not completely immune to the problems found among civilians at home, the veterans’ problems are to be blamed on military service - at least by the mainstream media.

Does Mr. Obama know how the rate of suicides or homicides among military veterans compares to the rate of suicides or homicides among their civilian counterparts? Do the facts matter to him, as compared to an opportunity to score political points?

Perhaps even more important, do the media even care whether Mr. Obama knows what he is talking about? Or is the symbolism of “the first black president” paramount, even if that means a president with cocky ignorance at a time of national danger?

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