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US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

bloomberg.com

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Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#491

Post by wartywhoa23 »

laughing_man wrote: post #480
nosmokewhereiam wrote: post #111

Glad to see this brought up! My entire Air Force experience is blocked to comment on besides basic training...Tech school and forward is NDA'd, read in, etc You don't really get to sneak a glimpse of operations and write a book like the SEALs seem get to (jk!)

My dad did 20 in the USAF. We would ask him about his work and he would just shrug. He wasn't allowed to say anything. Eventually we stopped asking -- what would be the point? Decades later I found out he felt like nobody cared about him because we stopped asking about his work.

It's sad when people totally associate themselves with their work, whatever that is.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#492

Post by racoonportfolio »

perpetuallunch wrote: post #337
kstrauser wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a big thing for drone people based out of Eppley AFB in Omaha. Wake up, drive to work, attack enemies, drive home, sit there eating dinner with your family trying to pretend you didn’t kill someone and can’t talk about it. Combat troops get to lean on each other after a firefight: “dude, good shot. That guy was about to get us!” You get validation that you did something to safe you and your friends, and it’s…

News just in: talking about your mental health, especially for men, does not improve your mental health. For the majority of men, most of the time. If it did, shouldn’t we see mental health improving by now?

My brother is a retired vet. Without talk therapy he'd be dead or in prison by now.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#493

Post by cushychicken »

sitzkrieg wrote: post #345
Hilliard_Ohiooo wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Took me a year to get my secret clearance in the military, I promise you no one gives a s** about anything you say once you're out. It is a fun way to feel self-important though :-) I was a part of the world's largest illegal operation in history and again I promise you no one gives a s**.

everyone seemed to nonchalantly care because you all got blanket secret clearance in mil. if you had TS/SCI and an interesting SAP you would not be saying this

if you had TS/SCI and an interesting SAP you would not be saying this

Facts.

Source: me - TS/SCI, several interesting SAPs, contractually bound to not say a word about the details til death.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#494

Post by cushychicken »

singingtoday wrote: post #379
Demiurge wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What people say about the US government being ahead of the commercially available technology curve is certainly true. Is that what they say?

Yes, and it's true. Not in every field. For example, defense contractors have material science well beyond what is commercially available. I'm a nobody, and what I've seen is world changing. And that isn't even the half of it.

The small slice of what I saw was some truly sci fi stuff.

People tend to forget that the US government will pay out the wazoo to achieve things that are one-time successes.

Consider things like Operation IVY BELLS, or Project Azorian.

Now consider that same mindset applied to a long term investment. The possibilities are pretty limitless.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#495

Post by leonidasrup »

breppp wrote: post #334
yosefk wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bush knew what he was doing - Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it. When Trump decided he wants them to release Israeli hostages he forced them to do it rather quickly, all things considered, showing who really controls Hamas. Restraining American "allies" is key to how America understands its interests and Hamas is an excellent lever to pressure Israel, or Hamas-controlled Gaza wouldn't…

> Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it I doubt this is backed by US intentions and actions historically > Similarly, Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood because he did That seems like a tautology to me, care to expand? I vividly remember Obama throwing his autocrat ally under the bus > in Ukraine for instance the same admin supported a coup The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US…

"In the late 2010s and early 2020s, Israeli officials encouraged Qatar to support Hamas, especially by approving the transfer of large sums of financial aid by Qatar to the organization. Several Israeli intelligence officials have cited Qatari money as a contributing factor to the success of Hamas in leading the October 7 attacks in 2023; Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the notion that Israel strategically propped up Hamas "ridiculous", and stated that Qatar's aid transfers to the Hamas government had been approved for humanitarian reasons."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#496

Post by almazglaz »

> On June 22, Rudd informed Cyber Command staff of three deaths by suicide in the prior two weeks, an official familiar with the matter said. Rudd’s message included a suicide hotline number, contact information for military chaplains and other mental health resources, the official said. Hours after the email, Stallings, the network intelligence analyst, was found dead by suicide,

> The next day, the command held an all-staff safety meeting where leaders encouraged personnel to support each other and seek help if they needed it, the official and two people said. Yet another man took his own life two weeks later, records show

Feels like any tech company, especially FB's recent attempt to improve morale using snacks, pizza, and hackatons.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#497

Post by ethbr1 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #323
throw488426 wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel actually has the capability of targeting a single apartment in an apartment building, and has done so dozens of times in the current war against Hezbollah.

Doesn’t that make it even worse that they also choose to flatten entire buildings?

Destroying civilian infrastructure and killing civilians is the current Israeli government's goal. Military advantage is just a nice window dressing for the Geneva Conventions.

Lot easier to steal land if there aren't any people living there (because the infrastructure to support modern life was destroyed).

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#498

Post by ethbr1 »

monkpit wrote: post #464
someothherguyy wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seems small when compared to the overall effects of war "An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting." https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/human

What point are you trying to make, exactly?

An important one that often that gets lost in "drone strikes bad" internet debating: the cost of the alternative.

If a nation is conducting drone strikes on another nation's territory, the alternative is usually conventional forces at scale on the ground*.

As the Iraq occupation showed, conventional ground forces at scale cause an even larger number of civilian deaths.

So drone strikes, if kinetic intervention is pre-decided, are a less-bad option from a civilian casualty perspective.

* Granted, there might be a decision not to deploy conventional forces because of the risk / cost, but if there are regular drone strikes, it feels like the aggressor country is past that Rubicon.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#499

Post by pseudohadamard »

brandonagr2 wrote: post #242
senderista wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel more compassion for the innocent people they killed and it's not even close.

Which part of "attack enemies" implies they were targeting innocent people?

In Afghanistan, and presumably Iran as well, the US military defined all "military-aged males" (12-65 years) as "combatants". This makes children and old men killable. You could drone strike pretty much any guy you wanted and all you were doing was eliminating combatants.

An addition, again from Afghanistan, only 2% of drone strikes were against identified targets. The rest were targets of opportunity. So you make most of the male population of a country killable through the use of appropriate language, and then hit 98% of them because you think they might be thinking about doing something bad in the future.

I can see why this would mess with people's mental health when what they're doing to random civilians sinks in.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#500

Post by graemep »

strictnein wrote: post #404
graemep wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I confused by this comment. You do not know the politics of people here but I should before making a comment that agrees with yours? > come from all across the political spectrum My point is that people are far more likely to call something a conspiracy theory if it comes from the other side to their own

Being that this is the internet I mistook your statement for saying that I was just calling this a conspiracy theory because I was on the opposite side of the politics of the people I was speaking ill of. If that wasn't the case, I apologize for my misunderstanding.

I should have clarified I was agreeing too.

> Being that this is the internet

True and funny and depressing at the same time.

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