Suicide.

This is coolbert:

Ever since warfare has existed, suicide has been a constant companion of the soldier and warrior.

Done for a variety of reasons over the millenniums.

A previous blog entry has mentioned incidents of mass suicide as evidenced by the actions of the Balinese [paputan] and the zealots at Masada.

These mass suicides were a response to an irredeemable and irrevocable situation. A means for the persons committing suicide to defeat their foes in death and show contempt at the same time. The dead are saying to their foes, "we die, but we do not surrender. We have contempt for you and death and do not fear either!!"

Suicide in some cultures has been a means for soldiers or warriors to atone for failure.

After the defeat and annihilation of three Roman legions at the Teutoberger Wald, Varus, the Roman official who ordered the rash and ill-conceived expedition in the first place, committed suicide. Varus's head was cut off by the German tribesmen who sent it back to Augustus as a macabre souvenir. It must have been that Augustus felt that honor had been maintained by Varus killing himself, as Varus's head was suitably entombed, with dignity.

Among the Japanese samurai, the practice of suicide has always been a part of their highly developed code of honor. Failure must be atoned for!

The Japanese Kabuki play "Forty Seven Ronin" [this play is reputed to be based upon a real incident], has as it's climax the ritual suicide of the forty seven samurai who have avenged the assassination of their master. These samurai, having first failed in their mission of protecting their master from assassination, having then sought and obtained vengeance, proceeded to expiate their guilt by mass suicide. The samurai ideal was maintained in this manner.

Even among the Japanese military of World War Two [WW2], suicide as a means to atone for failure was a common, seemingly obligatory practice. The two Japanese commanders on Okinawa in 1945, when cornered and realizing that the battle for the island was lost, blew themselves up with hand grenades placed to the head [one of these two generals was General Cho, who presided over the "Rape of Nanking"]. It was normal during WW2 for Japanese high and low ranking soldiers [sometimes in large numbers [Tarawa]] to commit suicide in this fashion when finding themselves in a hopeless position.

[suicide has also been practiced as a way of accompanying to the after life a leader who has just died. At the exact moment of the burial [cremation?] of the Japanese Meiji Emperor, General Count Nogi, hero of the Russo-Japanese war, and his wife, both committed suicide in deference and honor to the fallen Emperor, and in their belief system, as a means of following the recently fallen leader to "the other world"].

Among the plains Indians of North America, the ritual death of "tying of the thong" was considered to be the highest expression of a warrior's bravery and courage.

For whatever combination of reasons, when an American Indian warrior of the high plains of North America wanted to display "suicidal" courage [indeed, this was a form of suicide, and cannot be counted as anything but], he would singly enter the camp of an enemy, drive a stake into the ground, tie a leather thong to one end of the stake and the other end to his ankle. This would preclude any attempt to flee. This warrior, once tethered, would fight it out with his enemies unto death, death for the lone warrior being the only outcome. Can this be considered to be anything but suicide??!! I think not.

Suicide has been used from time to time as a means of inflicting very heavy casualties on your adversary.

The archetype in this regard is the Japanese kamikaze of WW2. Flying bomb-laden aircraft into an American warship, the kamikaze DID inflict very heavy casualties upon the American Navy, especially in the last days of WW2 in the Pacific. This was albeit at great cost to the attacker, only a small percentage of the suicidal Japanese kamikazes being able to penetrate American air defenses and successfully dive their aircraft onto an American ship.

The Palestinian and Islamic suicide bombers of the modern era seek to emulate the Japanese kamikazes.

Several things need to be said about this purported emulation.

The Japanese were military men fighting other military men in open combat.

The Palestinians and Islamic [P & I] suicide bombers for the most part attack civilian targets. Persons not able to respond or react appropriately. Surreptitious methods are employed by the Palestinian suicide bombers. Depraved methods are employed by the Palestinian suicide bombers. Civilian targets, use of poison, wanton implementation of weaponry intended to cause unnecessary suffering. These Palestinian suicide bombers are correctly labeled as "terrorists". Palestinian suicide bombers, regardless of what THEY think, are not in the same league as the kamikaze. Period.

For the Japanese, one can have respect. For the Palestinian suicide bomber, no respect.

The method of using suicide to inflict casualties upon your adversary indicates a position of desperation, and should be recognized as such. You, the suicide bomber, are saying, whether you realize it or not, "We are weak and relatively powerless against our foe. The normal methods of war do not suffice. We cannot defeat our enemy using conventional methods. We must resort to suicide as weapon!!"

[it is reported that Jimmy Doolittle [the master of the calculated risk], told his aircrew prior to the raid on Tokyo in 1942 that, "I am forty two years old and have lived my life. If our aircraft is damaged and I see we are going down, I want all of you to bail out. I will then pick out a target of opportunity and crash our damaged B-25 onto the target, taking my life with it!!"]

Suicide on the battlefield is sometimes resorted to by the individual soldier as a means of dealing with a combination of combat related physical privation and mental stress that has driven the individual to what is called the "breaking point". A point has been reached where the individual has been stressed so much that they cannot continue. Further movement forward [more combat] is impossible, and movement backward [desertion or other such alternative] is impossible. Suicide may seem to be the only viable alternative.

Suicide is accomplished in a variety of ways by the suicidal individual soldier:

The suicidal soldier may take their own life. Using the means readily at hand [assault rifle, hand grenade].

The suicidal soldier may allow the enemy to take his/her life by exposing their own very person to enemy fire on the battlefield.

A sailor may jump off ship, refuse rescue, and drown. [this type of behavior was observed among U.S. Navy personnel enduring kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Okinawa. A certain "breaking point" would be reached where a sailor would leave their battle station and jump off ship, rather than have to face further suicide attacks on the part of the enemy]. [in this specific case, suicide was the response to suicide!!].

Some persons have noticed the alleged high suicide rate [a high rate relative to what, I would ask??] of American troops in Iraq.

The Waffen SS in WW2 also is purported to have suffered from a high suicide rate.

Suicidal response in these cases is more than likely the result of two factors. Factors that produce what can only be described as melancholy [this was the exact term used to describe soldiers who in the aftermath of the American Civil War exhibited symptoms of what is nowadays called "combat fatigue"]. Melancholy that in extreme cases can result in suicide.

One factor is the constant, present, and very real danger of death that is found in the counter-insurgency, urban warfare environment of Iraq. [German Waffen SS troops faced an even more extreme version of danger in THEIR combat environment on the eastern Front of WW2]. Even for those soldiers that emerge unscathed from combat, the constant presence of danger cannot but have a profound effect upon the psyche of even the survivor!!

A second factor would be participating in and witnessing the extreme destruction caused by modern warfare, urban counter-insurgency type of warfare in particular. I am talking here about death and destruction of a nature as recently seen in the fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. A once bustling city of several hundred thousand persons has been reduced to a burned out hull. Inhabited by the dead bodies of enemy "fighters" and a lot of civilians who were foolish enough to NOT flee the fighting in advance. The sight of such an immense amount of destruction and death [bodies of the dead lay decomposing for days or even eaten by feral dogs] CANNOT BUT have a profound impact upon one's mental state. For EVEN the most hardened soldier!

Melancholy caused by exposure to such conditions WILL in some extreme cases lead to suicidal thoughts and suicide itself.

[in the novel "Dr. Zhivago" the Red partisan Pamphil witnesses the aftermath of an attack by "White" forces [anti-communist] upon a village friendly to the "Reds". Inhabitants of the village have been slaughtered and dismembered. Upon seeing this, Pamphil murders his family of small children and then wanders off, presumably to commit suicide. This in response to depression brought out by seeing this atrocity upon persons friendly to his cause. And this from a hard-core revolutionary!!].

[while executing Jews, German Einsatzgruppen [SS men] of WW2 would set up a table nearby the execution site where bottles of schnapps and vodka would be available. In between shooting unfortunates, the shooters would get "plastered". A means of coping and dealing with something they KNEW to be WRONG!!].

Hey, no one said war was fun or easy!!

Coolbert.