Soldier Suicides: veterans are killing themselves in record numbers »
Posted By BronxBomber 1 year, 3 months ago in NewsFormer Marine and Iraq war veteran Jonathan Schulze killed himself just days after he was told he was number 26 on the waiting list for the St. Cloud VA's PTSD program.
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BronxBomber
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BronxBomber1 year, 3 months ago
Ciera Marie had asked me to post this disturbing trend whilst she is studying for exams. This really is her story, and thanks CM for bringing this to the forefront. This is very alarming indeed!
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buckheadd1 year, 3 months ago
It is a very sad story, I must admit. How long must we stand this horrific war, how much more long can America take this?
If I become president, I shall withdraw from Iraq rightaway.
BUCKHEADD FOR PRESIDENT 2008!
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
More Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war than died during the war. This war may be worse. We'll see. Since Reagan, mental health programs have been slashed to pieces. The retun on investment for providing mental health services is 3:1 according to studies done by the American Psychological Association. But to insurance companies and elitist-social-darwinist republicans a suicide is cheaper than treatment. Only costs the government 4 cubic yards of earth and an aluminum box...a box that Halliburton probably sold to the government.
It's a shame our vets are treated so poorly by men who refused to serve and found ways to dodge combat when it was their turn years ago.
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AntiNeoCon1 year, 3 months ago
My son-in-law (USMC) committed suicide after returning from his second tour in Iraq. My other son-in-law has been ther three or four times, it does mess up peoples minds. We need to get out of there and let them deal with their own problems.
We are burying a soldier here who was killed (along with 3 others) with a roadside bomb..sad, very sad...he was 26.
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injest1 year, 3 months ago
Did anyone compare these Military suicide rate to their Civilian counterparts?
The stats below are per 100,000 for males only in 2005. I thought it was a shockingly high number for the military till I looked at these numbers
2005, rate 19.9 per 100,000
2004, rate 10.5 per 100,000
2003 rate 18.8 per 100,000
http://www.suicidology.org/associations/1045/fi...
2005 Rank State Crude Rate Rank
1 Montana 36.2
2 Nevada 30.9
3 Alaska 30.4
4 New Mexico 28.9
5 Colorado 27.0
5 North Dakota 27.0
7 South Dakota 26.9
8 Idaho 26.8 8
9 Wyoming 26.0
10 Arizona 25.0
11 Oregon 24.5
12 Tennessee 24.0
13 West Virginia 23.8
14 Oklahoma 23.1
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jordan111 year, 3 months ago
This is just tragic. How can these veterans needs be invisible to us when they're in plain sight. If the VA has no room, then we must give them other resources. PTSD is a crisis, and it can't be put on waiting lists.
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
Republicans have slashed mental health benefits and services in the US to almost nothing so that insurance companies can shut mental health payments down and keep the profits. The business case for the national good is clearly weighs in favor of providing mental health benefits based upon studies on the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy. But the Republicans don't have the national good in mind. Rather, they are vested in the interests of big insurance companies, big oil, etc.
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mntnman4441 year, 3 months ago
This is the kind of thing you think about BEFORE you go to war!The other big problem is helping these troops re-adjust when they come home,there is a bill in congress for a new GI Bill and so far,it's no "slam dunk".Iraq andAfghanistan Veterans of America are strongly supporting this bill.
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BronxBomber1 year, 3 months ago
My two nephews served bravely over in Iraq,received injuries while they were there, one of them recieved a Purple Heart while in combat. Both had seen they're buddies whom they been to basic training with die being blown up by civilians... some who are children...teens!. They were never in the same frame of mind when they both came back. The war took away they're innocence above everything else, and they are dissillusioned by this administration to say the least, but otherwise. I am happy that they did they're tours diligently, served honorably, and are back in one piece....they were truly the lucky ones. But at what price?
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
The concept of limited war is immoral. If a war is morally just then it would be immoral to lose. Consequently, the entire nation should go to war or not at all. Be proud of your nephews' courage but the men who sent them to war, simply see them as cannon fodder to use and throw away. All soldiers recognize when then are being used as cannon fodder. If the entire nation isn't mobilizing every resource...you're just being used to fuel SUVs.
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HOUSEMD1 year, 3 months ago
That's why they say, War is hell. My heart & my respect goes out to our troops.
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Mdiar1 year, 3 months ago
Suicide is a horrible thing. I never wish to see this happen to any veteran due to PTSD or conditions not stemming from combat. These people have given much for us, we need to give some back in return. Thanks Bronx and Ciera.
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tanglang1 year, 3 months ago
Well Scott we are there. Isn't it about time we stop complaining about how we should not have gone there and start working together to make sure we bring our boys home successful?
As sad as this is, my grandfather used to tell us about his fellow servicemen who suffered from the same thing after WWII. And my father after Vietnam. The only difference between then and now is that now it's ok to talk about. In the past our boys were just told to suck it up.
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GHOSTWHOWALKS1 year, 3 months ago
Every veteran who carries a weapon and does what is required carries inside him a strange sense of guilt. Taking a life is never easy even in a war and watching friends become pieces drives some over the edge. They never come back the same way they left. The scars run too deep.
Pray for those who gave their all. Pray for everyone of them/
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rdy2rckComment removed: User banned.
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Dicax_Maximus1 year, 3 months ago
Typical Govt... Ship 'em out, ship 'em back, forget 'em...
Same in the UK.....
It's more than pathetic, I just wish there were laws that could be used to sue the politicians for damages... Then, maybe, we might ALL see a reduction in both wars & casualties (both mental & physical)....
Then again, what politician would EVER let there loved ones go off to die or get injured ??? Very dammed few....
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BravoSierra1 year, 3 months ago
Except it's not government who is doing this to them. It's the US citizens who want to keep driving their SUVs, praise the lord and elect fascists to office. During Vietnam I believed every sporting event should be cancelled and every football player should be drafted. The only moral model for war is WWII and Sherman's march to the sea. If you go to war the entire nation goes to war. Everyone sacrifices, everyone contributes...and you end it. You don't "stabilize" you sacrifice, you destroy until you pacify and you give up your luxuries to support the war. This war is all about taking...about citizens sitting on their asses taking and a few being used a cannon fodder.
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mntnman4441 year, 3 months ago
Don't mean to get off track BB but look at this interesting piece about how vets have always been screwed .Notice that putting down their brothers was how Eisenhower ,MacArthur and Patton built their resumes...
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm
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BronxBomber1 year, 3 months ago
Not at all, I'm very glad you linked it. My gosh! How little things had changed even back then in WWI up to now...a bloody shame on a government that is supposed to be wholly based on freedom and democracy. Yet it practices the complete opposite with it's continual abuse, and mistreatment of our brave vets. Incredible! Thanx again mntnman...
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MRCOFFEECAKE1 year, 3 months ago
POWER AND AUTHORITY.
Since early times war was for the right for the most powerful
societies to pillage resources for their wealthy citizens.
Now we fight wars to protect the wealthy businesses from the Socialists or Communists whose philosophies threaten
the wealthy. So, our poor (and a few others) must pay with their lives to protect big business. THAT is what it is.
Lives are wasted to protect those in power under the guise
of good vs. evil.
Marie Antoinette, numerous kings and Emperors all made people believe that their cause was noble, and they got what they deserved in the end.
Mankind is about assimilating eachother's cultures, not clashing over them. America began as a melting pot, and it now have become a culturally, financially and racially divided society. Our time is passing and we are doing nothing but speeding up its decline.
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icono11 year, 3 months ago
Interesting that the same politicians that are very fast to send young men and women in harm's way to defend the "American way of life and democracy" seem to be the first Americans to forget the citizen-soldier when they return from a tour of duty in a combat zone. Maybe the next time the Generals and the Politicians need go to fight the next war they started for their idea of the great 'American cause' then they can compare notes with the veteran Grunts about the Hell of Combat.
I'm sure it would be a very short and basically silent conversation. For if you have ever been in combat the last thing you want to do is sit around the metaphorical camp fire trading 'war stories'. There is no glory there; just memories of extreme fear and mindless death 24/7. And it is best to let sleeping dogs sleep if they ever do.
Our Govt is run by soul-less & God-less people that think only of their bottom line and nothing else.
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uncle-dave1 year, 3 months ago
If the suicides aren't bad enough, there's another dark side of this war that is being swept under the rug. Namely the rape of female soldiers and the indifference and hostility that they face upon reporting this crime.
FTA:
"We have significant concerns about the military's response to sexual assault in the combat zone," said Christine Hansen, executive director of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation, which has assisted 31 women. "We have concerns that victims are not getting forensic exams. Evidence is not being collected in some cases, and they are not getting medical care and other services."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0125-08...
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Natureboy1 year, 3 months ago
Don't forget the rape of the MALE soldiers, Dave - that's one nobody wants to touch.
http://www.refusingtokill.net/rape/malerapinthe...
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ETproductions1 year, 3 months ago
Perhaps the most telling misstatement of the chicken hawks behind this monumental foreign policy blunder was Cheney's claim the George Bush has suffered the most in this war. When a stunned Martha Raddatz of ABC asked about the 4,000 dead and their families, Cheney dismissively replied, "They volunteered."
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uncle-dave1 year, 3 months ago
They volunteered ET, but when it was time for Cheney to serve he had "better things to do"!
This guys arrogance is beyond anything I have witnessed by a public figure.
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daducha1 year, 3 months ago
Anybody who witnesses and experiences a war will never be the same person again after. Nobody wins in a war.
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HMMace1 year, 3 months ago
YOU CAN THANK BUSH FOR THIS..BY SENDING THESE MEN BACK FOR TOUR AFTER TOUR IN THAT HELL HOLE CALLED IRAQ,,
BUSH IS A MONSTER..
NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO SERVE MORE THAN ONE TOUR THERE..
STARTING WITH THE BUSH GIRLS, AND CHENYS KIDS..
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mntnman4441 year, 3 months ago
No,maybe they're killing themselves from suffering from Sudden Friendship Syndrome from ALL those Iraqis who were dancing in the streets and throwing flowers at them.A rose to the head can cause permanent brain injury.Or maybe the stress comes from knowing that after 5 years of winning hearts and minds,70% of Iraqis still think it's OK to kill Americans.
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Ciera-Marie1 year, 3 months ago
I did not mean to give bill2936's comment a positive vote.
I agree with him that our service men and women are under stress. That's all that I agree with him on.
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dunkirk1 year, 3 months ago
Sad truly sad when you go to war based on lies for profit and then further the problems by neglecting those ho were sent to fight it. With REPUBLICANS as friend you truly dont need any enemies.
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