World News and Trends: Troubling number of Army suicides
The number of suicides and attempted suicides in the U.S. military is tragic.
"War is hell," stated American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman as his Union soldiers crossed the Pearl River after the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863. Today, war is still hell for the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a new problem has surfaced within U.S. military forces that shows the stress soldiers face.
"A record high number of Army suicides are linked to an increasingly 'permissive' environment in the service where soldiers take personal risks in their lives by using alcohol and drugs, committing crimes and refusing to get psychological help, according to a sweeping internal investigation released by Army officials," said a July 29, 2010, USA Today article (Gregg Zoroya, "Army Suicides Linked to Risky Behavior, Lax Discipline"). In many cases, the report says, commanders don't do enough to curb the behavior.
"The review commissioned last year by the No. 2 Army commander, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, says this 'Army-wide problem' is linked to a tally of deaths last year that included 160 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide and 146 more who died during risky activity or behavior such as drug use. Seventy-four of those deaths were drug overdoses. There were also 1,713 attempted suicides last year."
The number of suicides and attempted suicides in the U.S. military is tragic. War truly is hell, and the more American society tolerates the abuse of alcohol and drugs, the weaker will be our values. The Bible shows this will all change after Christ's return, when peace will break out all over the world. As Micah 4:3 tells us, all nations will beat their swords into plowshares and will at last learn war no more. (Source: USA Today.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: September - October 2010
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Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
