According to this article on the AP, suicides have exceeded war casualties among troops in Afghanistan this year. Partly, that underscores how few troops actually die fighting in Afghanistan – the drones help assure that mostly the people who die are on the other side. But this whole suicide-while-in-the-military tells me they’re doing something very wrong. I can speak from my own experience in the Army – when you feel there’s some moral failing in what you’re doing, it’s much easier to feel despair and get depressed. I think, therefore, that this suicide rate among troops is something we should pay attention to, vis-a-vis our moral instincts – do we have any?
What I’m listening to right now.
Radiohead, “Go To Sleep.” This song is awesome, and the video is cool too – I’d never seen it before searching for a version of the song to paste here.
Like every song from this album (Hail To The Thief), it makes me nostalgic for my massive 2003 road trip in Australia, when I discovered my rental car had a CD player and I went into some suburban Sydney Target store and bought a couple Radiohead CDs, which thus became my soundtrack for the trip up the coast from Sydney to Cairns (2000 km).
Lyrics.
Something for the rag and bone man
“Over my dead body”
Something big is gonna happen
“Over my dead body”Someone’s son or someone’s daughter
“Over my dead body”
This is how I end up sucked in
“Over my dead body”I’m gonna go to sleep
Let this wash all over meWe don’t wanna wake monster taking over
“Tiptoe round, tie him down”
We don’t want the loonies taking over
“Tiptoe round, tie them down”May pretty horses
Come to you as you sleep
I’m gonna go to sleep
Let this wash all over me