Suicide Bombs

More news to embolden our enemies: Army suicide rates have skyrocketed.

There were 99 Army suicides last year -- nearly half of them soldiers who hadn't reached their 25th birthdays, about a third of them serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. [ . . . ] 69 were committed by troops who were not deployed in either war, though there were no figures immediately available on whether they had previously deployed.

Most striking is the youth of the suicides. There's a theory about that.

Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, told a Pentagon press conference that the primary reason for suicide is ''failed intimate relationships, failed marriages.''

She said that although the military is worried about the stress caused by repeat deployments and tours of duty that have been stretched to 15 months, it has not found a direct relationship between suicides and combat or deployments.

''However, we do know that frequent deployments put a real strain on relationships, especially on marriages. So we believe that part of the increase is related to the increased stress in relationships,'' she said.

''Very often a young soldier gets a 'Dear John' or 'Dear Jane' e-mail and then takes his weapon and shoots himself,'' she said.

Notes an army chaplain, ''You're away from home, you have to put your life on hold. I know soldiers whose marriages have broken up or who couldn't pay their bills.''

Sounds to me like those army wives hate america. If they were real patriots, they would support our troops by staying in marriages that are impossible, emotionally and financially. By divorcing their husbands, breaking up with their boyfriends, or even just being too emotionally or financially demanding, they embolden the terrorists.

Why do army wives hate freedom?