More soldiers die of suicide than from combat

[PLC1]

A Veteran's Death, the Nation's Shame - Veterans Commit Suicide at a Rate of One Every 80 Minutes

Yes, that figure is correct. HERE'S a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands. An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year -- more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began. These unnoticed killing fields are places like New Middletown, Ohio, where Cheryl DeBow raised two sons, Michael and Ryan Yurchison, and saw them depart for Iraq. Michael, then 22, signed up soon after the 9/11 attacks.

What a tragedy.

How is it at all acceptable to keep sending the same troops back into combat over and over? How is it that we con conduct a war when only the military is at war?

The cost of the war in Iraq and Afganistan will go on and on, long after the reasons for having gone to war are forgotten. Soldiers sent to Vietnam are still paying the price today, 40 years later, and that one was fought by draftees who typically only did one tour of duty.

 

[dogtowner]

Seems to be a failure of the VA.

Impact of rationed care at least according to the "voice of federal medicine".
Sad state of affairs indeed.

 

[PLC1]

Seems to be a failure of the VA.

Impact of rationed care at least according to the "voice of federal medicine".
Sad state of affairs indeed.

Yes, it is. If we're going to send soldiers to do multiple tours of duty, then the very least we could do would be to provide some sort of mental health when they come back. Support the troops, indeed.

 

[dogtowner]

Yes, it is. If we're going to send soldiers to do multiple tours of duty, then the very least we could do would be to provide some sort of mental health when they come back. Support the troops, indeed.

they do provide it but its rationed so becomes untimely (as described in that article).
perhaps if a budget were accomplished something might could be done about it

 

[steveox]

Well the Arabs are committing suicide too. They hijack planes ramming them into buildings,,,The blow up cars and busses and trains with dyamite strapped to them.

 

[PLC1]

they do provide it but its rationed so becomes untimely (as described in that article).
perhaps if a budget were accomplished something might could be done about it

Yes, an adequate budget would no doubt help. That's the least we could do, it seems to me.

The most would be not to start a war in the first place if we have to send the same people into combat over and over again.