Written by Sophie Mangal; Appeared from Global Research
The current commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, known as SOCOM, General Raymond A. Thomas, addressing the Senate Committee on Armed Services said that Special Operations Forces (SOF) are not able to maintain the current intensity of operations. He stated the servicemen are psychologically exhausted, which is reflected, among other things, in a large percentage of suicides.
The general stressed that 8,000 U.S. Special Forces fighters are now participating in special operations in more than 80 countries around the world. At the same time, 55.3% of servicemen are in the Middle East, 17.3% in Africa and 12.7% in Europe. About 500 commandos are in Syria. Such active involvement of Special Forces has a negative impact on the stress-resistance of the units.
General R. Thomas expressed concerns about the number of suicides among military personnel. At the same time, he did not cite specific data, deciding not to go into the ‘terrible statistics’.
In this situation, attention is drawn to the information of several media, according to which the peak of suicides among servicemen of special units of the United States took place in 2012. Then, an agreement on strategic partnership in the military sphere was concluded between the United States and Afghanistan, and an active phase of confrontation in Syria began. According to Reuters, more than 350 cases of suicide were officially registered then. In 2014 – the beginning of the military intervention of the international coalition in Syria and Iraq – 275 servicemen committed suicide. In 2016, more than 400 cases were recorded.
Moreover, the head of the Special Forces expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that recently Special Forces have been increasingly used as universal means to solve any problems. He believes that U.S. SOF are currently forced to solve tasks that go beyond their usual functions.
According to the American general, the SOCOM experiences difficulties with the staffing, which are caused by the wide geography of troop’s deployment, as well as the long terms of their missions. As an example, Thomas pointed out the operation in Afghanistan, which, according to plan, was to end as early as 2014.
The general stressed that in recent years, the SOCOM command has doubled and even tripled its efforts to provide psychological assistance. With this purpose, two years ago, a contract was signed with the American Association of Suicidology to develop a program to prevent suicides and identify early signs of possible tragedies.
These tragedies are unfortunately not surprising, after almost 16 years of uninterrupted wars. As early as 2015, the former commander of the Special Forces, General Joseph Votel, as well as Adm. William McRaven in 2014, warned of the excessive pressure on them. Now the soldiers of the U.S. SOF negatively speak about the rules of combat, their small number and high mortality in Iraq and Syria.
Special Forces were eagerly waiting for the inauguration of Donald Trump. In December 2016, Trump, speaking in North Carolina, said that the U.S. will concentrate on combating terrorism and defeating the IS, and not at overthrowing governments. It seems that these plans will not come true, as at such a pace, the United States may soon disable its most combat-ready forces.
Read about the real situation in U.S. SOCOM and try to analyze the great delusion at the stenographic transcript of the meeting between General Raymond A. Thomas and the Senate Committee on Armed Services that is available here.
Sad for the US forces to be footsoldiers and to die not for the USA but for the International Globalist New World Order bankster cabal and to fight and to die to install a global dictatorship of the corporatist – bankster elites in their country. This is patriotism for what? ………no it isn’t,,, the special forces soldiers are as misled as Hitler’s Waffen SS Panzer Grenadiers at the Battle of Kursk. They all died for nothing!!
At least the SS Panzer grenadiers died for Germany, and the German agenda. How the battle of Kursk was delayed and eventually executed is another story. It all boiled down to an argument between Hitler and his generals.
Fair comment! However, the net result for these men was a waste of their lives for what amounted to nothing. Had they lived what may they have achieved with their lives?
War is a waste of lives, especially, when conducted with idiotic leadership. Had all the dead that perished in all wars lived, they would have continued living and doing things they were planning on before they went to war. The world would be a far different place than it is today, had wars been minimal.
Correct! ……….Sadly, normal people don’t run this planet; it’s run by psychopaths who are greedy for massive accumulated wealth, and, moreover, the all important drug of power to exert over us ordinary folks. Furthermore, these maniacs suffer from pretentions to grandeur and the Pharaonic aberration that they are dieties and their families can form dynasties.
They are not fighting and dyeing for “International Globalist” …… they are doing this unwittingly for Israel and it’s Neocon Zionists and Saudi partners, who are in control of our foreign policy. All of this has it’s roots in the Iraq war and Israel’s plans to remake the Middle East.
Zionists will go to extreme means to hide what they have done. It is not about Globalists or pipelines or control of oil. It is about The Project For A New American Century, to remake the Middle East and eliminate Israel’s enemies and dictate peace terms to Palestinians. Fifteen of the signers of that document in 1997, later got jobs in the Bush Administration.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MqVY1-ncBI …..
Yes you are right but they did die from something they died for racist, supremacist, evil, Jews.
I think that these SOF are the first men to get aware what a bullshit they are doing on behalf of obscure interests. That cannot be without damage to their souls.
They’re running out of psycopaths…
They’ve a solution to that problem, they incriminate. Court-martial or join the special forces.
US soldiers are not conscripts. You know what is involved when you pursuit a career in the military. You are a professional.
Special Forces are awesome, they’re highly trained and capable to do way more then regular soldiers. They’re also highly secretive. Which is why politicians who want to engage in light/covert wars love to use them.
Thing is, most soldiers do not make the cut to become special forces. Standards are high, which means there just aren’t a whole lot of them. Certainly not enough for all the light/covert wars that politicians love to wage.
By the way methinks the same pressures and elevated suicide risks will apply to the Russian Spetznatz, as they are probably also seeing duty in the Ukraine and Syria above and beyond their numbers.
In the Ukraine, the Spetznaz are defending the Motherland (the Ukraine was always part of the Mother Russia) which gives them a valid justification for their actions whereas the NATO troops are invaders and fighting for what? Money for banksters and psychopathic oligarchs. In Syria, the troops are training and helping the Syrians retake and defend their own motherland whereas the US troops are invaders and fighter for what? Money for banksters and psychopathic oligarchs.
I think that the Russian Spetznaz’s concience is quite clear when it comes to waging war so their level of suicide will never reach the Americans’. Doing the right thing vs doing the bidding of thieves makes a whole lot of difference on your soul.
You argue about that the why and how of that war, I will disagree, however the point remains the same. Special Forces are a finite source and if you overuse it too much, they too can break. So the same thing applies to Russian SF as with American and other Western SF. Too much use because they are seen as the golden ticket by their political masters is not good in the long run.
The USA soldiers kill themselves because of the evil crimes and criminals they were ordered to support like ISIS and Al-Qaida (raping and eating children etc) and they can’t live with themselves for not killing their own COs in a mutiny and instead went along with such horrible crimes. I heard of one USA Goyim solder who could not take the screams of the little children being raped and mulitated by allied Afghan forces (in the Afgan section of the base) most of whom are sadistic pedophiles.
Well they joined the Empire, this is what they desired to do with their lives, and that is take other lives. Just like excited IDF solders do and SAS solders do. These nations love all of this. Life is just a game to all of them. They have no respect for anything or anyone. -True Story.
They dont sleep, cant shit & dont eat well – what do you expect? Is a job perceived as glamorous but the reality is being a whore that kills.
After all the hype about mental toughness they have to exibit to get selected ! …