In Memoriam

Sunday mornings are my time to channel surf through the political analysis shows. One of my favorites is This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Two of his segments I like are the Funnies, and In Memoriam where he remembers those 'lives of note' who have passed on in the past week. Then he lists the soldiers:

"This Week with George Stephanopoulos" recalls the names of U.S. service members who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan this week. Our hearts go out to their loved ones.

I wonder if within those noted military deaths he also lists those who have committed suicide?

Amy Goodman with Democracy NOW reported this story on the Record Numbers of US Soldiers Committing Suicide:

The US military is grappling with a record number of soldier suicides. At least thirteen soldiers took their lives last month. That’s down from the twenty-four military suicides in January and eighteen in February, but still in line with the most number of suicides since record keeping began. As many as 143 soldiers reportedly took their own lives last year.

Emma Prophet, an investigator with the Board of Medicolegal Investigators goes on to say: There was a revealing article here, that I think actually got off of National Public Radio, that the first two months to three months of this year, there were more people that are active duty that committed suicide than there were killed in action. And that’s the first time that that’s ever happened. And it’s happening when they’re overseas, and it’s happening when they come home.

I wrote George Stephanopoulos and asked him if he does indeed 'remember' those soldiers who have committed suicide and if he considers that a casualty of war. When I get a response I will post it here.
----------------------------------
Follow Up: I have e-mailed ThisWeek several times and with several of their selected topics and I keep getting back: This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification. Delivery to the following recipients failed.