Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran

[IrateCitizen]

This article is a jarring reminder of the true costs of war. Lost in the raw data of physical injuries and fatalities is the impact as young people's lives are psychologically torn asunder, as they are forced to sacrifice their humanity in order to survive the barbarity of war.

Just one Jeffrey Lucey is too many.

The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Another Casualty of Bush's War
By MARK CLINTON and TONY UDELL

Jeffrey Lucey is not a name that will not soon be forgotten by the more than 100 people who attended a memorial service for him at Holyoke Community College (HCC) in Western Massachusetts. Lucey, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war and a student at the college, committed suicide on June 22. He was 23.

As his father Kevin said at the memorial, Jeff's death, while not officially listed as such, is another casualty showing the human costs of the war. Lucey joined the Marine Reserves at 18 because, as his parents told Amy Goodman of the left-wing radio program Democracy Now! he wanted to get the training and earn money for college.

He was called to active duty with the 6th Motor Transport Battalion in early 2003. By February, he was in Kuwait. One day after he celebrated his 22nd birthday, the invasion of Iraq began. Trained as a clerical specialist, he was reassigned to serve as a driver.

On April 18, 2003, Jeff wrote to Julianne Proulx, his girlfriend since 1997, that he had done "immoral things." On his return to his parents' home in July, however, he had seemed normal, and everyone was too happy to see him to suspect that something was terribly wrong. With those who knew him less intimately, Jeff maintained the façade of the good Marine until the very end.

READ THE REST HERE: http://www.counterpunch.org/clinton10052004.html

[Jo March]

1. Having to move a dead child out of the street

would be enough to do it for me. I can't fathom the depths of his despair.

[tnlefty]

2. I read this a couple of days ago and it shook me up. It is so sad.

So sad that anyone should be forced to do things that he/she just can't come to grips with. I wish that Coulter and her clones would take their baseball bats and go to Iraq. Violence seems to be something she and her like-minded dopes enjoy and I truly think that they should be given an opportunity to have at it.

[DinahMoeHum]

3. I also wonder - how many Timothy McVeighs have been created. . .

out of this war?

It's not just those veterans who then decide to kill themselves that we have to worry about - it's also those who may decide to do what Tim McVeigh or John Muhammad did to prove a point.

:nuke: