WilliamHutson
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@Pyortor Self-donation is what the Army and the Marine Corps are all about. Appealing to this motive may prove enough for some people not to take their life. Our society doesn't seem to want to REALLY accept self-donation as the essence of love. But it's what separates us from animals. Love is always sacrificial. Love is not an emotion. Love is an act of the will. We focus too much on emotion and self. And most psychologists have it exactly backwards, by focusing on self and emotions.
@Sisyphus @WilliamHutson @Pyortor Sisyphus. Calm down and stop the hyperbole, if you have enough self-control I pointed out earlier that this tough love/reminder approach is ONE part in a set of other approaches to try. If the other approaches had worked for all, then we wouldn't be talking other approaches. The general knows more about the mind of soldiers (and I would be human behavior) than you do, in your armchair. Apparently you think everyone needs to be treated identical. And that everyone responds to the one best method. Ludicrous. You know nothing of the mind of a soldier/Marnie. Nothing.
The General knows more about human behavior than any 10 whisker pulling psychologists, and any of you wannabes
@Pyortor The field of psychology has totally screwed how we think about life. It begins with all the BS self esteem nonsense. Self esteem is the RESULT of mastering something objectively difficult and good. It's not something you deliberately go after as a variable itself. It's a byproduct. But listen to the psychologists, educrats, and media, and you'd think it is the thing itself. This misguided thinking continues and spreads into all manner of situations, like PTSD. Real mental health comes from self donating, not by focusing on self, but on serving others.
I hope he's not sorry for what he said. He spoke the truth. The suicide numbers are ALWAYS briefed at every operational brief the General (or any one above LtCol) attends. They look at it every which way from Sunday. They are constantly "examining" what seems to work, vs. what really works. The psychobabble is rampant. All my friends seem to play the same stupid (and well meaning) "tape" to me. They all mean well, but they play the tape the media gives them..that we're all PTSD, we're unstable, we're angry, we're stupid, we're brainwashed, we need help. BS. Most Marines I know are so good at getting stuff done under austere conditions, it'd make the average MBA student's head spin. They're smarter, more no nonsense, fact and result oriented, and self-donating.
@tonyframe @TinkNathan Stop. He is not harassing the troops under his command. He and his peers have tried every program the psychobabbleists have concocted over these last 10 years, and in all possible combinations. He's treating them the way they need and want to be treated like men who know what it means to serve others. He's reminding them of a higher calling. Most of the posters here seem like complete prideful academics. They know nothing real about human nature and struggle. All untested psychobabble.
@Pyortor One of the most opinionated and fact free comment I've seen. All the psychobabble yet no insight. I've gone to Iraq twice. I know something about how the military has been trying to help Marines and Soldiers for years. I am a Marine. All your viewpoints are so full of ungrounded media-fed characteristics. I have met some of the most caring, intelligent, and yes forceful personalities I have ever met in the Marine Corps. This General should be commended not browbeat. He sliced right through to the core of the problem with suicides among service members. I am 150% sure that the Army and the Marine Corps have tried three times every other approach (in all manner of combinations) to combat this problem (this program, that idea, this event, that technique). This blog entry of his was a last and noble resort to help those men he knows very well. In the end he's right; suicide is a selfish desperate act. He was right to appeal to any remaining noble and "serve other" neuron in the minds of these Soldiers and Marines who have laid it on the line for so many deployments. Well done General Pittard. Healing comes faster and surer by not focusing on self, but by giving to others, to regaining true communion with others.