As I was driving home Tuesday night from the bus and listening to the news on my local CBS AM radio station, I caught the tail-end of a story they were simulcasting from the CBS Evening (TV) News. It was about the suicide rate among Iraq "War" Veterans and the information CBS News uncovered is astounding.
("CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.)
I know this subject is kind of a bummer; However it gives me pause to think about the soldiers and Marines who managed to make it out of Iraq alive only to come home and kill themselves because of the inadequate support offered by the Veterans Administration, our government and the current administration who SWEARS they "Support the Troops"
It is clearly NOT okay that our returning troops don't get the care and support they so desprerately need and the information gets swept under the rug. This should be headline news!! EVERYONE should know about this!
That's why I'd like you (all three of my readers) to PLEASE go (I'm seriously begging here) read this story from CBS News and tell as many people as you know who will listen about this awful, awful thing. Ideally, the more people that know, the less the government can cover up what they're NOT doing for our armed forces.
And, if you happen to be a vet reading this, please check out Vets 4 Vets. It was started in 2005 "by a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam" FOR other Veterans as a means of support. Who better to talk about your experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan with than your fellow troops?
If you claim to support the troops, this is something you CANNOT turn your back on.
Namaste
14 November 2007
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2 comments:
This is how bad it really is:
I'm an Iraq War vet. Currently I work in construction. One of my coworkers has repeatedly told me how proud him and all of his family were of his nephew, who was an infantryman in the Army. This soldier was seasoned. He had spent 12 years in as a non-commissioned officer. A leader.
One day this last September my coworker had to take an emergency 4 day weekend to attend the funeral of his dead nephew. It was the sergeant. He chose to blow his brains out with a handgun rather than go back to Iraq for the third time. He left behind a wife and two kids because he didn't want to go back.
He was evaluated 3 times by Army shrinks but somehow slipped through the cracks.
He appeared depressed around family members but never talked about suicide.
He was a proud soldier and a loving father and never once in his life did he appear suicidal.
How bad is it when a guy like my coworker comes to me and asks with sad eyes, "What the fuck happened to you guys over there?"
This war is bullshit. But to pretend that there are no side effects to a war of gross immorality is even worse.
Hey America, this is a real problem that we ALL have to pay the repercussions for.
God, or Allah, help us all.
Thank you, JCro for bringing light to this horrible situation.
-Jeff
My son did two tours in Iraq. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize it was this bad. I'll put up a link to this on my blog.
Thanks for posting this.
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