Tom Secker
A 2016 study found
that 20 US veterans kill themselves every day. Department of Defence
(DOD )statistics show that the suicide rate among veterans is around
twice the rate in the non-military population. An analysisin 2017 said that a suicide attempt in a military unit makes other attempts more likely, and that 20% of all the suicides in the US are by military veterans.
These brutal statistics testify
to the futility of our post-9/11 wars, as well as the horrors inflicted
on those employed to fight these wars on the ground.
What has never previously been reported is the extent to
which the Pentagon’s entertainment liaison offices manipulate and censor
films, TV shows and documentaries to try to downplay or erase the widespread problem of military PTSD and suicide.
Among the stories we discovered while writing our book National Security Cinema is
that there was a raging argument on the set of Iron Man between
writer/director Jon Favreau and DOD Hollywood liaison Phil Strub. Strub
refused to let Favreau include a line where a military character says
that he knows people who would ‘kill themselves for the opportunities he
has’. Though the line was changed, this scene did not appear in the
finished film.
Using documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, along with files from a newly-opened archive in
Georgetown, I investigated the Pentagon’s approach to projects that
feature or reference military PTSD and suicide. I found that the DOD has
repeatedly censored and refused to support films, TV shows and
documentaries that feature military suicide, and tends to only support
those projects that make it look like the DOD is solving the problem.
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