another tragedy

that's been brought to light before. yet nothing is done. i don't even understand why people still enlist in the military these days. the treatement we afford our veterans (ALL veterans actually, not just those from iraq and afghanistan) is shameful. the care we dole out is at the very least lacking. at the very most a crime
AP Scoop: War Veterans Make Up Half of Suicides At Hom
WASHINGTON National Guard and Reserve troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan make up more than half of veterans who committed suicide after returning home from those wars, according to new government data obtained by The Associated Press.A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars -- obtained exclusively by The AP -- found that Guard or Reserve members were 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005.The research, conducted by the agency's Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first demographic look at suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who left the military -- a situation that veterans and mental health advocates worry might worsen as the wars drag on.Upon learning of the VA's findings on Tuesday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars called for the Pentagon and the VA to combine their efforts to track suicides among those who have served in those countries in order to get a clearer picture of the problem.''We're very concerned for the overall well-being of our military men and women as well as our veterans and want to know, is there a growing problem that needs to be addressed by both the (Defense Department) and the VA?'' said Joe Davis, the VFW's public affairs director. ''To fix a problem, you have to define it first.''Military leaders have leaned heavily on Guard and Reserve troops in the wars. At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq.Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007.............

how much more?

how many more times are we going to hear and read this? how many times are we going to ignore the health and well-being of our enlisted men and women and our veterans?
oh wait, we have something WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more important to do. yes, that's right, INVESTIGATE STEROIDS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (how many people does THAT encompass? a couple of thousand give or take) and now the rap industry??????????????? yup, mlb players and rap artists are FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN
Rate of Traumatic Stress Triples Among U.S. Troops
TUESDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat-exposed U.S. soldiers has risen threefold since 2001, a new study finds.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop after exposure to combat or other extremely disturbing events.
Researchers at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego analyzed data on more than 50,000 participants in the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the health of U.S. military personnel over 22 years. The researchers compared data collected in July 2001 and June 2003 against data collected from June 2004 to February 2006.
The data included details about combat exposure, new onset PTSD symptoms, cigarette smoking and problem drinking...........

i thought i misread this

but i re-read the figure and i didn't. the new york times found 121 instances where combat veterans of afghanistan and iraq were charged with OR proven to have committed a killing (back home). that figure, to me, is ASTOUNDING. and remember, this is ONLY WHAT THEY FOUND. who the hell really knows what the real figures are. who the hell really knows how many are suicidal OR WILL commit some sort of major crime in the future. we MUST do something and do it NOW. our veterans NEED HELP. their families need help. where is the public outcry? why is congress investigating steroid use in mlb? why the fuck aren't they doing something out THIS instead?

War Torn
Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles
By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army. This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, “like Falluja.”
Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame — and tucked an assault rifle inside it. ........

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction. Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.