Suicide Is Painless Yada Yada Yada

I was in the Army, have followed its ebbs and flows closely since the Vietnam War and can pretty much say that I have its measure. And that the news media and bloggers sometimes unfairly criticize it because of a failure to understand the context in which bad things sometimes happen.

But I have no such compunction is coming down hard on Brigadier General Stephen J. Townsend, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, who in response to the alarming number of soldiers taking their own lives at Ft. Campbell, has essentially ordered his troops not to commit suicide.

Yes, our troops have to suck it in sometimes, but this is exactly the kind of callous and ignorant response to a real epidemic that should afford Townsend a transfer to someplace very lonely and very far away where he's not going to do any more damage -- at least not to anyone but himself.