The United States military is scrambling to head off what has turned into an epidemic of suicides. As reported on CNN, 24 service members killed themselves in January of this year, six times as many as in January of last year. 2008 was the fourth consecutive year of increases in soldier suicides.
Veterans For Peace Executive Director Michael McPhearson said this is not a surprise to him. “It is tragic. It is the culmination of years of continuous deployments and general stress the Armed Services have been put under because of an invasion and subsequent occupation that should have never happened.”
The Army Times reports that Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a February 13, 2009, one day halt to recruitment activities also known as stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in a Houston Recruiting Battalion.
Mike Ferner, Veterans For Peace’s National President stated, "I don't want to see anybody in Washington shed one tear for the families surviving these suicides as long as Congress continues to fund these wars and the President continues to deploy more troops. You put people through combat; you get suicides and PTSD related violence back home. That's the simple equation Congress and the President cannot ignore."
One vivid example of this equation comes from the Houston Chronicle, which reported in a May 18, 2008 that an Army investigation attributed the 4 recruiter suicides to a combination of work environment, stress and personal issues. The latest was the March 6, 2007 death of Sergeant Nils Aron Andersson who shot himself in the temple less than 24 hours after his wedding to Cassy Walton. Cassy killed herself the next day.
McPhearson went on to add; “Nils Anderson’s death was nearly two years ago and the Army is just reacting to the 4 deaths in one Battalion. They should have seen these 24 deaths in January coming. Veterans For Peace is asking our members to visit with their Congressional Representatives and Senators next week to discuss these suicides, that the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan contribute to the deaths and how our economy must transition from a reliance on war spending to human needs spending. We look to Congress to take these suicides seriously and stop spending our taxes on war. Bring all our troops home now.”
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Founded in 1985, Veterans For Peace is a national organization of men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts cold or hot. It has chapters in nearly every state in the union and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary. Veterans For Peace is an official Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the U.N.
Suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel are continuing to rise even as the Defense Department dedicates more resources to identifying troubled service members and getting them the help they need, NBC News has learned.
At least 125 soldiers were confirmed to have killed themselves in 2008, compared with 115 in 2007, 102 in 2006 and 87 in 2005, a senior defense official told NBC News. Last year’s figure is likely to rise even higher, because the Army is investigating at least 17 other deaths as possible suicides.
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Army suicides at record high, passing civilians
Graphic shows active duty Army suicides from 1990 to 2008
Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians.
Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out.
At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said Thursday. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated.
"Why do the numbers keep going up? We cannot tell you," said Army Secretary Pete Geren. "We can tell you that across the Army we're committed to doing everything we can to address the problem."
The PBS News Hour had a report on these Military Suicides on tonight. I'm going to try and grab the video report and transcript, probably be up by tomorrow w/video, it was in depth with Paul Sullivan of 'Veterans for Common Sense' on as well.
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And Domestic Violence As Well
The Hidden Casualties Of War CBS Evening News Investigates Staggering Domestic Violence Numbers When U.S. Soldiers Return From Iraq, Afghanistan
Abused Military Wife Speaks Out "Only On The Web:" Katie Couric speaks with dometic violence victim Jessacia Patton about the abuse she faced when her soldier husband returned from Iraq. {There are two other video's at page link}
The Army is cracking down on sexual abuse in the ranks. One-third of service-women and 6 percent of servicemen say they've been victims. This week, the army said it will hire more prosecutors to bring perpetrators to justice. Meanwhile, critics say the military needs to do more about another crime women, being assaulted, beaten, even raped by their military husbands or boyfriends. A CBS News investigation finds more than 25,000 spouses and domestic partners have been attacked over the past decade. Nearly 90 spouses have died. The numbers are growing. It can be as deadly as combat: Domestic violence in the U.S. military.
Nineteen-year-old Spc. Brandon Bare is accused of killing his own wife.
As the number of veterans seeking health care continues to rise, the VA is straining to meet demands.
Amid talk of a drawdown of troops in Iraq, new statistics from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) show that US casualties are still climbing quickly. Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield injuries and deaths number 81,361, up from 72,043 last January, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Veterans for Common Sense (VCS). Veteran patients - including those who didn't seek care until their return home - shot up to 400,304 (from 263,909 in December 2007).
For the thousands of soldiers flooding the VA, mental illness tops the list of ailments. Forty-five percent of VA patients have already been diagnosed with mental health conditions, including a startling 105,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These data do not include the incalculable number of mentally ill veterans who have not received a diagnosis or haven't sought treatment at the VA.
Military takes action as precaution after audit highlights flawed testing
U.S. Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered the recall of more than 16,000 sets of body armor following an audit that concluded the bullet-blocking plates in the vests failed testing and may not provide soldiers with adequate protection.
The audit by the office of the Defense Department inspector general, not yet made public but obtained by The Associated Press, faults the Army for flawed testing procedures before awarding a contract for the armor.
Iraq will not authorize Blackwater Worldwide, the U.S. Embassy's main security company, to operate in the country anymore, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said his ministry's decision was sent last Friday to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and "they have to find a new security company."
Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in the Houston Recruiting Battalion.
Poor command climate, failing personal relationships and long, stressful work days were factors in the suicides, the investigation found. The investigating officer noted a “threatening” environment in the battalion and that leaders may have tried to influence statements from witnesses.
I'm not going to add to this, they list a few of the problems, already found, in the report.
But a 'Stand Down', across the whole Recruiting Force means this is Big and possibly wider, in other area's, than just what happened in the Houston Battalion!!
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Purple Heart, Purple Haze
On October 22, 1967, General William C. Westmoreland paid a surprise visit to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital near Long Binh, South Vietnam. He had come to distribute Purple Hearts. To his chagrin, he arrived first at a medical ward where soldiers were convalescing from various tropical diseases and infections. "Medical wards!" the General yelled. "I don't want to see medical wards. I don't want to see those fakers." Westmoreland's classless quote is recalled by doctors and nurses at the 93rd who were then treating those "fakers" and was recorded for posterity in David Maraniss's Vietnam epic, They Marched Into Sunlight. The message was simple: When it came to the suffering of US soldiers, bombs and bullets were honorable; mosquitoes and microbes were not.
Defense officials have launched a preliminary investigation into how Stars and Stripes and its former parent organization, American Forces Information Service, handled money for the America Supports You program, a Defense Department spokesman said.
Part of that reason is an article printed in the Asian Times, I just finished reading.
The "So wrong for So long" not only can describe how our current tragic history has been evolving, and what may be coming in the short term future and beyond, in it's lack of competent leadership, it's rapidly changed policies of death and destruction of others pre-emptively for no reason or a veriaty of reasons with no foundations nor proof of existance, it's violations of human rights through arrests and torture of others on whims of suspicion or even less than that.
The 'So wrong for So long" describes how this country doesn't learn it's own lessons from it's own past in it's relative short existance.
One of those lessons is the lesson of War, especially the Wars of Choice leading into Occupations of Others and the terror those invasions and occupations bring upon them, those others haven't done a thing to deserve the total destruction of the World they once lived in and now is changed forever, with the children growing up in a World the complete opposite of what should be and shaping their lives from the experiances of that existance.
The article in the Asian Times is titled What it means when the US goes to war but could be titled with any countries name substituted or just "What it means to go to War". This is about what happens to American Soldiers sent into Invasions and Occupations of Choice, we've gone through all this before, lessons not learned, none of the lessons of!
American soldiers in Iraq daily face "atrocity producing situations", from patrols, convoys (which race along like freight trains of death), home raids, detentions and military checkpoints: the essence of war, after all, is death. Using the experiences of soldiers on the ground, Chris Hedges strips away the myths of glory and honor and discovers the uncommon "moral courage" that the veterans he quotes have exhibited by telling the truth about their war.
And moral courage it is, when for the health and sanity of the individual, that individual must let go of what's deeply hidden and speak out on what they have seen or taken part in, in the hell on earth War, man's destruction of others, man's terrorizing others to force their ideologies and beliefs on them, or simply to strip them of their individual dignity and material wealth and countries resources.
They confront the grave, existential crisis of all who go through combat and understand that we have no monopoly on virtue, that in war we become as barbaric and savage as those we oppose.
This is an extremely important read for the Uneducated and Unexperianced of War and Occupation, and for those who have but choose denial to cope, how all that one has grown to learn, in many area's of ones young life, is quickly stripped away in the reality of what man does to fellow man.
These are the already grown children, sent off to engage in these Wars, think of the experiances of the young children living in these theaters of war, this is how they are learning the lessons of the world they were born into, and growing up in as it continues, they can't be taught differant, they can hear about beauty and peace, tolerance and love, but they exist in a hell created around them, with all the fears and terror it brings, that man rages on other men.
Last night, in case you missed it, Greg Mitchell was one of the guests on the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS
GREG MITCHELL: Right. Well, that's — again, it's different coming from the chief White House spokesman than coming from me — you know, for better or worse. But you know, I — that's what I mean. I think what's troubling to me is the response to that. The media has not responded by saying, "Boy, we really got caught out here, and we really need to look at what we did wrong. And we're, you know, we need to report on what the mistakes we made and what we — you know, what we've really learned now."
Now a few days ago the Senate Intelligence Committee finally released a report about the lies the administration fabricated, and more, in the reasoning to invade an innocent country, Iraq. Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true. And what have the media placed front and center as most important, what Hillary Clinton will do now that this Historic Presidential Campaign has passed the torch of leadership to Barrack Obama, even half the time frothing over Hillary could and should have been used to report on the Intelligence Report and our Soldiers at War, but for myself even more should be reported! The PDF of the Report
JONATHAN LANDAY: What's disappoints me is that here was an opportunity, once again, but a very large opportunity for major news organizations to do the mea culpa they never did, to admit that they indeed failed to do what they're supposed to do, failed to be the watchdogs they're supposed to be. And yet we saw exactly the opposite for the most part. And I was just I was left breathless by some of the things that I heard where you heard correspondents say, "Well, we did ask the tough questions. We asked them to the White House spokesmen," Scott McClellan and others. And you say to yourself, "And you expected to get real answers? You expected them to say from the White House podium — 'Yeah, well, there were disagreements over the intelligence, but we ignored them'" when the President made his speeches and the Vice President made his speeches. No, I don't think so.
They blew it once again this past week, and will blow it in the coming weeks!
JOHN WALCOTT: You know, if Fox News's mission is to defend Republican administrations then they're right, they didn't fail. One of the things that puzzles me about all of this, in Scott's book is this notion that it was the liberal media. I'm not — I don't understand what liberal versus conservative has to do with this. I would have thought that conservatives would be the ones to ask questions about a march to war. How much is this gonna cost us? What's the effect of this gonna be on our military, on our country's strength overseas? I don't think it's a liberal conservative question at all. I think that's, frankly, a canard by Scott
I highlighted the passage above because that's what I've felt right from the beginning even though it was so called conservatives beating the drums louder and louder for invasion and occupation, but I've been answered over and over with the fact that Conservatism, as it once was, is dead, none existant, undefined, in this new century. What's replaced it can only be described with a word from the past, Facism, for the many resemblances to.
GREG MITCHELL: You'd have to see whether the press this time would use the phrase "taking care of Iran." Now, what does that mean? Even if you do bomb Iran, what does that do? What is the aftereffect? What is the overall effect of it? What does it do to, you know, how many people do you kill? What happens in the wreckage afterwards? So if it's the media is — which it didn't do with Iraq — does it in this case then people will have a better understanding of what we're letting ourselves in for if we do attack Iran. JOHN WALCOTT: That's an excellent point because the failures before the war on Iraq are probably matched by the failure to ask this question about invading Iran. Is it really gonna be easy? Are we really gonna be greeted with flowers and chocolates, as liberators, which is what the defectors told us? And one of the things this Administration has never been able to get through its head is the old saying that the enemy has a vote, that the enemy, whatever you do, they will respond in some way. And the Iranian-
Can the World, and our National Security, become worse than it is today, in the near future? Yes, invaded or bomb Iran and watch the Hatreds and Growth of Enemies result from!!
A Country like ours should be Leading by Example, making friends not enemies, helping others not destroying them, setting examples of moral and human tolerance and dignity not joining those who torture and control, trying to live as we preach, not condemning others when doing the same.........................................................................!
Setting the Example that can be Admired and Followed!
Once upon a time kids asked their fathers, "What did you do in the war, daddy?" It's a question the next generation could ask all of us, who stood by as our government invaded Iraq to start a war whose purpose and rationale keep shifting and whose end is nowhere in sight, and who look now with nonchalance upon the unseen scars of those who are fighting it.
That's it for THE JOURNAL.
We'll be back next week.
I'm Bill Moyers.
A victim of the war within Suicides of Houston Army recruiter and his wife leave questions of struggle that endured after Iraq
A group of Marines ogling a pinup girl outside their bunkers in Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, in January 1968
Targetting Congressional Pages or Toe Tapping in public bathroom stalls is just fine and dandy, as well as giving male prostitutes seemingly unlimitted access to the White House Press Room and only rove knows where else, and the other numorous sex related adventures of mostly republican congressmen, bet the women have a few little secrets themselves.
But shockingly, once again, after being the Lead Cheerleaders, along with their equally sex confused talking heads, o'really are you listening, you to fatboy cyst, to the extremely failed policy of Wars/Occupations Of Choice we get this:
Wonder what's hidden in his closet, and/or how many names did he use in describing All Of Us who Opposed their Need to Occupy another small country, destroying it and it's people, creating more Hatreds and Damaging our National Security for the years to come!
Republican Congressman Paul Broun, the representative from Georgia's 10th District, wants to stop the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at military bases around the world, invoking an argument that at the very least is scientifically questionable: that consuming even soft pornography makes men more prone to committing sex crimes.
This while they are lowering the standards for recruitment to supply the Military Industrial Complex the warm bodies needed in order to maintain their Occupations of Innocents, to kill and be killed, so they can claim their Strenght on National Security and how Mocho, with Family Values, they are!
According to data released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps recruited significantly more ex-convicts last year than in 2006. The crimes included assault, sex crimes, manslaughter, and burglary.
I'm still wondering where are all those Supporters, Young RepugNuts, and Why? they haven't been rushing to their recruitment centers to sign on the line and take The Oath of Service to Country, I mean they've had plenty of time, we're into the sixth year in Iraq and Afganistan, with those who are serving, many because there no longer are comfortable paying jobs with any type of future, serving two, three, four, and now some five tours In Theaters!
You would think this congress critter would be more concern with this:
Or the Many Other Overwelming reports, finally servicing, this year especially, of what these RepugNuts should have placed Front and Center as they Beat The Drums Of War/Occupation Louder and Louder, and Keep On Beating, placing themselves, along with their spin meisters, Above All in this Society a Society they're Hired to Represent!
I mean with all these Family Values that bring on a his False sense of Morality of Soft Porn that may Corrupt these Young Minds of our Military Personal, like these war mongers and profitteers could care, especially in Theaters of Their Wars/Occupations!
I don't need to add anything to the below, one: I'm not there, two: what's below says it all, three: this Country put it's Military Through All This Before to my Brother 'Nam Vets and followed up with Every Deployment Since!
How many know what's happening with the Gulf War I Vets!
Murray: VA's Katz Should Leave Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., says she wants "honesty, openness, and directness" from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and says Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's top official for mental health, should step aside.
Harkin: 'Cover-Up' At VA Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, responds to emails exposed by CBS News that show the Dept. of Veterans Affairs withheld information about suicide risk among veterans. "Some heads oughta roll," says Harkin.
A little backround as the Trial started on monday.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs isn't doing enough to prevent suicide and provide adequate medical care for Americans who have served in the armed forces, a class-action lawsuit that goes to trial this week charges.
The lawsuit, filed in July by two nonprofit groups representing military veterans, accuses the agency of inadequately addressing a "rising tide" of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder.
"CBS News RAW": Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., questions Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield about allegations that the VA tried to cover up the true risk of suicide among veterans.
After a Senate hearing, CBS News' Armen Keteyian asks Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield if Dr. Ira Katz, the department's top mental health official, will remain at the VA.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs may paint a rosy picture of improving healthcare for veterans, but the agency has systematically denied benefits to sick veterans and delayed claims so long that many of them commit suicide, a lawyer for two advocacy groups argued in federal court Monday.
"The court faces an agency that is in denial and a healthcare system and an adjudication system that are broken down and in crisis," said Gordon P. Erspamer, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, in an opening statement in the class-action suit against the VA.
Gordon Erspamer, the attorney who brought the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs that went to trial this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is a big, unresponsive government agency's worst nightmare.
He's a rainmaker attorney for a major firm in the city who has set aside time to take legal action that doesn't earn a penny. And besides that, he's got a compelling and personal back story and a chip on his shoulder to prove it.
MINNEAPOLIS - Too many Iraq War veterans are slipping through the cracks and aren't getting the benefits they've earned, veterans told U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday.
War affects different people in different ways. We know more about that because of advances in various sciences, technology and computing power. There's still a lot left to learn. But this is certain: The price of war isn't limited to the cost of bullets.
That's why it's so important to have a strong, efficient, accountable federal agency to disburse care to those among us whom our nation sent off to fight. For the first time in its modern incarnation, the Department of Veterans Affairs is led by a general who is also a doctor, James B. Peake.
Let a few of the Families speak as well:
Veterans Families Speak Out "Only On The Web": Chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian speaks to the families of five soldiers who, allegedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, took their own lives.
What's happening is just 'The Tip Of The Iceburg', as they say!
You had better prepare yourselves Country, you Wanted It, and You Allow It To Continue, the Human Costs have already started mounting!
And keep in mind the little Country We Destroyed and the Deaths and Maimings 'In Your Name'!!!
Whistle-blowers who criticized a veterans charity group's lavish spending have been kicked off the charity's board of directors in a move they say was made in retaliation for speaking out to ABC News. "They were incensed that I would tell the world how their donated money was being wasted," said Henry Cook, national commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH).
Good Ole Boy Politics For The Boys Club of a number of these Charities?, and their Political Hacks, in Congress, who have allowed this to continue, Especially as the Drums Of Choice for the Occupations were beating louder and louder !!
Last year the Service Foundation paid the Washington Redskins $685,000, according to the foundation's tax forms. Cook said that money allowed the Service Foundation executives to sit in the owner's luxury box at the stadium. "They partied lavishly," he said, adding that the foundation takes advantage of the emotional impact of the Purple Heart medal to raise money.
"[The Service Foundation] gave a $255,000 retirement package to their executive director -- who they rehired at his old salary. They gave two museums $500,000 a piece this year. How does all of this serve the welfare of combat wounded?" he asked.
Who also have their own Investigative series, this one on the Suicides of Veterans and Returning Military Personal from the Wars/Occupations of Choice.
They have a number of backlinks, with videos, to follow this growing tragedy and their own investigation of!
The Country, who cheers them on, goes into Denial and Refusal to grant what is owed to those they send!
The first Gulf war was a War of Choice when Bush Sr gave a certain old U.S. buddy a 'wink and a nod'!
The conflict I served in was a War of Choice built on lies with the lies continuing, even to today, and just one of the many results was returning military suffering from results of Defoliant Spraying which Government, Producers of, and the Public Denied it had adverse effects. Vietnamesse and Soldiers are still suffering the effects and this Country still Denies!
There are other reports that trickle out, as there were with the defoliants of 'Nam, like this one from Australia that people who really care pay attention to, others just give passing glances to.
Every day five U.S. soldiers attempt to take their own precious lives in the U.S. army. Or this article about Military Suicides which gives referance to present mysterious ailments of returning OIF Military personal.
Many U.S. veterans of the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq have complained of a range of serious diseases, including tumors, chronic blood strains in their urine and stool, sexual dysfunction, migraines, frequent muscular spasms, and other health issues similar to the debilitating symptoms of the “Gulf War Syndrome” and the Vietnam War Syndrome, known as “Agent Orange”.
Which is a Powerful Writeup that should be a Must Read, giving context to the Suicides and PTSD, which I'll get to shortly, I suggest you visit and read!
Here are a few more recent reports on 'Gulf War Syndrom' you can view Here and Here, the second one again coming out of Australia.
A BIG Thank You goes out to Ilona Meagher over at PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within, if you don't visit You Should! Ilona posts up some very important information and reports that should be read and embedded in this countries concious.
She has two recent ones that are powerful reminders, out of many, of what the Tragic Trauma's many experiance, from the Combat Battlefields to the Extreme Tragedies within a society, can do to some who live them. Many of those who suffer from do so Silently, especially those who never experiance the Combat Trauma's but their own events that live on within them, as well as the Combat Soldier who won't admit to his or hers concious reminders and triggers.
Those of you who read PTSD Combat regularly know I'm currently a student at Northern Illinois University and shared my experiences the day of the shooting and beyond.
After all these years, and the many Wars, with returning troops, and the civilians of countries invaded, suffering from their Traumatic Nightmares of the Living Hell on Earth, PTSD is Finally being mentioned as a result to many who live through the personal and collective tragedies a society create.
It gave mention in an article, from my old hometown paper, I happened to catch yesterday, Discovery still haunts man, a very sad story about a baby:
"It was almost like a post-traumatic stress kind of thing. . . . It was haunting for a number of years, even today," he said.
Along with the above I've heard it brought into the public realm, where it should already have been, a few times recently. One was a movie on Lifetime. The main charactor described an event from her childhood that haunts her with nightmares and fear that she, which was what the movie was about, was trying to rid herself from. Another was an interview on NPR where the young women mentions the trauma of her mothers death, both actually say the four important letters, PTSD.
The second post Ilona has is about Combat PTSD and the effects of on one soldier.
That link brings you to her site post, but hopefully she won't mind, I'm bringing it over to you, as it contains just a short introduction with five video's containing the show.
As Ilona writes:
A&E's Intervention program recently featured a segment on Brad, a young man coping with his PTSD by self-medicating with alcohol and marijuana after two Iraq tours with the 101st Airborne.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Intervention is a "series in which people confront their darkest demons and seek a route to redemption" by profiling "people whose dependence on drugs and alcohol or other compulsive behavior has brought them to a point of personal crisis and estranged them from their friends and loved ones." Brad's journey is a powerful and important episode.
These are ambitious but critical goals. "Let me tell you my theory about PTSD," said US VET's Mitchell, a Vietnam veteran and licensed counselor. "Everyone that is in a combat zone experiences PTSD. The key is what support systems are there for when they get home."
There is no shortage of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who need help adjusting to civilian life. And, unlike during the Vietnam War, there is no shortage of civilians who want to embrace the nation's returning warriors, even if they don't support the war.
One new grassroots effort will take place at noon Monday, when more than 1,000 therapists from around the country will participate in an online forum on treating Iraq war vets suffering from trauma. It can be seen at UCTV - University of California.
Actually If one visits, or listens to, the Pro-War, though Not Serving, folks and their sites, Very Little is being done or said by them!
This planet, not only this country, but this country Must Take The Lead, must finally start to realize what it's Wars of Choice do to those they send but more important to those innocents forced into that Hell, the Long Term Effects!
By doing so it will better understand what, in silence, many living within it's communities are going through from their own extreme tramatic life events and how it effects much of what they do as they moved forward from them, from the silent suffering to possibly causing others experiances that should not have occurred!
There's new information about the risk of suicide for those who have served in the military. Last November, CBS News broke the story of the overwhelming number of veteran suicides nationwide.
"When you go through war, you're going to change permanently and totally for the rest of your life," said veteran Harold Pendergrass.
In the post I asked a question "Once again I'll ask, if we as a Country 'Support The Troops', why do We Make Those Same Troops and Veterans Jump through Hoops of Red Tape and Broken Promises to Seek That Support ?!!!!
I'm not going to go into what many of my 'Nam Brothers went through, upon returning and loooong after, it's easy to find the facts for those to young or not around than. For those old enough, well, most just plain weren't paying attention, and Now We're Repeating because of that!
We seem to love Wars Of Choice, some 70% were well into supporting the present debacle, which means many reading this were in that percentile, and when we have them it's seems very easy to put those who are sent to fight them Out Of Sight and Out Of Mind, as they return and Long After, especially those suffering from the Trauma's of War.
I say "AGAIN" in the subject title because I've watched what's happening now for all these years since returning from 'Nam and getting my discharge after 4yrs. to the present, not only for my brother and sister 'Nam Vets but for Korean Vets and all those since!
The Veterans Administration and VA Care is only as good as the Political Appointee running it, and the Monies Budgetted by Congress, the Peoples Representatives! Most of those working in the VA system do great work and are extremely caring people, they can only do as much as they can with what this Country gives them and under the leadership of the Politics involved! Trouble is when the VA is mentioned, in the negative, they, like most hard working people, get the blame!
That blame lays at the feet of the People of this Country, it's Representatives, and in the present times a certain Political Party, that had Total Control, and Wanted to follow the ideology of a handful of misfits and extremely dangerous minds, Power Hungry and Extremely Greedy!
But hardly a whisper has been heard about a Congressional hearing in Washington last week on a topic that could have been drawn, in all its tragic monstrosity, from the theater of the absurd, about the consequences of these costs, which are like a cancer inside the American economy.
Already we are seeing large numbers of returning veterans showing up at V.A. hospitals for treatment, large numbers applying for disability and large numbers with severe psychological problems.”
Even the most basic wartime information is difficult to come by. Mr. Stiglitz, who has written a new book with Ms. Bilmes called “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” said they had to go to veterans’ groups, who in turn had to resort to the Freedom of Information Act, just to find out how many Americans had been injured in Iraq. The $2 Trillion Nightmare
Yesterday, 3-03-08, on NPR's Fresh Air there was another interview with Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz, the authors of the book above. They interviewed each seperately with Ms Bilmes on first for abit over 20min.. In her interview she discusses the Military and Veterans Care issue that's in the book, This Is a Must Listen To Interview, if you missed the NPR show!
Or you can visit later but listen to the report now with this link which brings up the NPR Player, again This is a Must listen to interview. Neither Ms Bilmes nor Mr Stiglitz are whistling dixie here, this is how We Treat The Veterans of This Country
Or you can listen to this interview here covering many of the little known costs of the Debacle that we'll be paying for years, he talks about the cost of the private contractors, this is abit over 18min long!
Lawyers for two veterans groups asked a judge Monday to order the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to overhaul its health system, especially its mental health treatment, to meet growing demand from soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Every nation that goes to war makes that war its religion. Wars are always holy, necessary and sacrosanct. That's why asking how much a war costs is blasphemous. It's like asking how much God is worth.
With all this talk about Experiance why is it the one supposedly without can see the Real Need and the Neglect:
Barack Obama Pledges 'Sacred Trust' with Veterans All American Patriots (press release) - Taeby,NA,Sweden Obama passed legislation to stop a VA review of closed PTSD cases that could have led to a reduction in veterans' benefits. * Obama passed an amendment to ...
Obama: ''We Will Not Leave Any of Our Veterans Behind'' PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) - Wien,Austria Obama passed an amendment to ensure that all service members returning from Iraq are properly screened for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). ...
He keeps Talking the Talk and he's got this Vets Vote and I'll hold his feet to the fire to Make Sure He Delivers!
Where was all the Experiance as the Drums of War were beating Louder and Louder and one Political Party Controlled, as to Making Sure we Learned the Lessons of the not so distant Past as to the results of War on those we send!
While calling out all of us who not only understood the obscene nature of what was to come, Shock and Awe and the Creation of Much More Hate thus placing our National Security, and that of other nations, into extreme jeopardy, as well as the future generations who will be dealing with the 'Blowback' from these times!
Experiance, you don't get Experiance out of Apathy and Denial!!
“Our veterans deserve better,” Mike Bowman told a congressional hearing Wednesday. “Don’t make it so the soldiers go to the VA; make the VA go to the soldier.”
Anyone want to post these here's the direct links: For the first Video and For the second Video. These are up at Blip TV, where you can get the share player links, now to go to Google Video's to upload, I'll put them up as well.
