War’s Suicidal Contagion

(Originally posted in Newsbreak)

Trigger warning: the following text features a frank discussion about mental illness, self harm and suicide.

The suicide and bombing committed by an Army Green Beret in Las Vegas is another reminder of an American foreign policy that is incompatible with the stable mental health of service members dispatched to enforce it.

The New Year’s Day bombing by a Tesla Cybertruck in front of Las Vegas’s Trump Hotel provoked its share of symbolism and spectacle to start 2025. Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger remains were found inside the exploded vehicle. Authorities investigating the tragedy say he died by a self-inflicted gunshot.

Ending his life in such a public spectacle, it begs the question whether or not Master Sgt. Livelsberger received sufficient mental health treatment. An ex-girlfriend of the Green Beret, Alicia Arritt, encouraged him to seek help, knowing how he had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, as well as depression and memory loss as a result of serving in Afghanistan and other theaters of war.

Livelsberger’s self destruction prompts further discussion of suicide within military ranks. Suicide has claimed more lives of war veterans (approx. 124,674) repatriated back to the U.S. from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts than the lives that perished (approx. 65,110) in their respective battlefields.

In 2022, the Veterans Administration announced in a National Veteran Suicide Prevention report, that veteran suicides accounted for nearly 14% of self-inflicted deaths in the US, however, veterans as a group comprised only 7.6% of the US population.

What U.S. foreign policy refuses to learn about veteran suicides is the moral whiplash endured by the human psyche: not only as a result of physical and psychological trauma suffered in battle, but also from returning home to a nation utterly uninformed of, and indifferent to, the sacrifice made by war veterans and their fallen comrades.

As for decisions on whether or not to commit U.S. troops and national treasure to a military conflict on the other side of the world, there never seems time or consideration for the affliction of soul and body that venture will exact of rank and file service members. Every single veteran suicide echoes that decision’s cruel and unjust calculus to send our sons and daughters to a war lacking any relevance to the safety of our homeland.

(If you are experiencing an emotional crisis or thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for free, 24/7, confidential services.)