War, Wealth and Mental Health

THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED

In the year 2010 the war against Afghanistan divulged its raison d'etre: the Pentagon revealed that the country had mineral resources worth more than a trillion dollars.

The Taliban were not among the resources named.

Rather gold, cobalt, copper, iron and above all lithium, an essential ingredient in mobile telephones and laptop computers.


COLLATERAL DAMAGE

Around this time in 2010 it came out that more and more US soldiers were committing suicide. It was nearly as common as death in combat.

The Pentagon promised to hire additional mental health specialists, already the fastest growing job classification in the armed forces.

The world is becoming an immense military base, and that base is becoming a mental hospital the size of the world. Inside the nuthouse, which ones are crazy? The soldiers killing themselves or the wars that oblige them to kill?

from Eduardo Galeano's 'Children of the Days'