On Friday, the Army released its suicide totals for the month of September. Among active duty servicemembers, there were 17 potential suicides with one confirmed. Among the non-activated reserve component, there were eight potential suicides with zero confirmed.

Through September 2010 there have been 226 potential suicides this year with 174 confirmed and 52 still under investigation. During this same period last year, there were 185 suicides with a total of 242 for all of 2009. These numbers underrepresent the problem of suicide among the military and veteran population since many suicides are unknown or go unreported.

Untreated psychological injuries have pushed many troops and veterans to take their own lives. Despite numerous suicide prevention programs military wide, servicemembers continue to take their own lives at alarming rates. Last month, four decorated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars took their lives in the same week at Fort Hood. Admiral Mullen recently acknowledged that suicides will continue to increase in the coming months as many servicemembers return to their home stations after years of deployment. “The emergency issue right now is suicides,” Mullen said.

To end the suicide epidemic, IAVA continues to call on the VA and DOD to address this problem. We need a nationwide campaign to combat suicide and promote the use of DOD and VA services such as Vet Centers and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Admiral Mullen’s recent statements may bring attention to this issue, but until there is a national campaign targeting every servicemember and veteran, many will continue to fall through the cracks.

You can only hope that the very preliminary peace efforts in Afghanistan bear fruit before long. But for evidence that the United States is letting its claim to greatness, and even common decency, slip through its fingers, all you need to do is look at the way we treat our own troops.

The idea that the United States is at war and hardly any of its citizens are paying attention to the terrible burden being shouldered by its men and women in uniform is beyond appalling.

We can get fired up about Lady Gaga and the Tea Party crackpots. We’re into fantasy football, the baseball playoffs and our obsessively narcissistic tweets. But American soldiers fighting and dying in a foreign land? That is such a yawn.

I would bring back the draft in a heartbeat. Then you wouldn’t have these wars that last a lifetime. And you wouldn’t get mind-bending tragedies like the death of Sgt. First Class Lance Vogeler, a 29-year-old who was killed a few weeks ago while serving in the Army in his 12th combat tour. That’s right, his 12th — four in Iraq and eight in Afghanistan.

Twelve tours may be unusual, but multiple tours — three, four, five — are absolutely normal. We don’t have enough volunteers to fight these endless wars. Americans are big on bumper stickers, and they like to go to sports events and demonstrate their patriotism by chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” But actually putting on a uniform and going into harm’s way? No thanks.

Sergeant Vogeler was married and the father of two children, and his wife was expecting their third.