Military Suicide Epidemic

Military suicide is a far bigger epidemic than COVID-19 right now.

First off, the Bible doesn’t look at suicide the way Westerners do. This life isn’t precious, so suicide isn’t always a tragedy; it isn’t always meaningless. What’s a tragedy is that military training does nothing to build the hearts of men. I’ve seen a precious few chaplains approach the issue, and some lay people, but the system never made any room for the real human needs of the troops.

Had I not been somewhat heart-led when I enlisted, I would not have made it. I have no doubt I would have committed suicide once I was out of uniform. I went in with a sense of mission both times I served. The first time was a failure; I lost sight of the divine calling. That’s why I felt compelled to try again. The second time felt more like I found myself and my mission.

This is what’s missing from the military. It’s not as if we could make some reforms to fix the problems. It’s the nature of Western society, and the epidemic of suicide symbolizes the death of the West. It cannot provide the foundation human souls need. It’s a great place to serve if you have a sense of mission, and the heart-led way will grant you a healthy measure of success.

But it will also make you leave before you get too far, because the system cannot tolerate a genuine heart-led conscience. The higher your rank, the more you are required to conform to the corruption that dominates the system. I never gained the kind of patronage from those above me to carry me through the system. That’s what it takes. I left when I ran out of patience with the utterly mindless changes forced down the pipe from above. Once you begin to understand what’s going on behind the scenes, you either have to embrace it or leave it.

But nothing will replace that time of great spiritual power flaming among a small group of us while stationed in the Netherlands. It was a rare moment, and all of us knew it. It doesn’t happen often enough. When it does, the upper ranks eventually squelch it, quite intentionally.

This epidemic is only going to get worse.

By the way, the corruption is less about criminal acts and more about learning to skirt the intent of the regulations, to use the military machine as the vehicle to carry you through opportunities for more-or-less legal plunder. Plundering the system itself is still forbidden, but plundering everything the system touches is another matter. And it’s not always about money, but hedonism itself. You would not believe the kinds of moral turpitude that military people hide. The closer they get to the core of what’s actually going on, the more likely they are to be held by some hideous perversions.

Those perversions seldom make the news.