APA: Suicide Among Vets Could 'Trump' Combat Deaths

[NYC_SKP]

Please add this to the reasons we have GOT to win this time.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/APA/tb/9345

That's just Iraq/Afghanistan veterans. Among ALL veterans, the suicide rate is 18 PER DAY.


Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.

"Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate," he said last November.

But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.

He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day among America's 25 million veterans."

That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, "is supported by the CBS numbers."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/21/cbsnews_investigates/main4032921.shtml

[1Hippiechick]

1. Important fallout of the effects of military. Proud to recommend.....n/t

[NYC_SKP]

4. Thanks, I lost one friend to suicide after the first gulf war.

Bulldozing bodies into the sand is not something anybody should have to do for their president. For Michael it was too much.

This statistic is shocking.

:hi::patriot:

[livetohike]

2. Very sad and shameful

and not reported enough. Thanks for posting this.

[cbayer]

3. This is possibly one of the most shameful things about this war.

Not only do we send our men and women to engage in a conflict that is wrong, we refuse to properly care for them if they physically survive. Some of this is because of the persistent prejudice against people with psychiatric illnesses. Some of it is because of the gross underfunding of psychiatric services. Some of it is because of the shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who have been crippled by both the government's and the managed care industry's lack of parity.

Good for the APA. Everyone should know about this.

Thanks for posting this.

[NYC_SKP]

5. If this tragic statistic can galvanize us, then perhaps their deaths will not have been...

... entirely in vain.

Thank you for your comments.

[patrice]

6. Robbed of their Hope and their Humanity by LIES.

Informed consent is essential to Freedom.

[jenmito]

7. K&R for the sad reality...

Sorry about your friend. :hug:

[1Hippiechick]

8. An acquaintance of mine just leaned late last night that her grandson had been killed in Iraq on

Saturday. He had just been home for a visit a couple of months ago. Grandma has raised him because his 'mom' is on the streets somewhere. She said that it was just like in the movies--the knock at the door, etc. We are all hearbroken--her grandson....:cry:

While I do not personally know a vet who committed suicide, we lost friends in VietNam, and I think that those of us who were around in the 60s and survived all that turmoil see IraqNam as another VietNam. So, we identify more with the senseless loss of life. And, for me, it is a constant reminder of VietNam. And I will NEVER 'get over' VietNam.

[NYC_SKP]

9. I'm very sorry for your loss, and regards to his family.... In a way...

every unnecessary death in this war diminishes us all.

:hug:

[1Hippiechick]

11. "...every unnecessary death in this war diminishes us all." Absolutely. Who knows what these young

ppl could have contributed to the world. Every soldier and every life is important--gone forever--unborn babies who will never know their mom or dad, newborns whom service moms or dads will never see, grieving children--a loss from which they will never recover because it leaves a wound so deep. I was orphaned at 4 (both parents killed in an automobile accident)so I can identify with these children. Life will never be the same again. Every milestone, every benchmark in life, my guess is that the child will think of the parent s/he lost to war, and wish that mom or dad was there for guidance, to share in planning a wedding, to greet a grandchild that will never know it grandparent...it never leaves you, at least that has been my experience. Life goes on, but one is forever wounded.

[Egnever]

14. Hard to read

you say it well. it never leaves you...

My mother killed herself when I was 5. I am now 42 it haunts me still.

[1Hippiechick]

15. My heart goes out to you, and I love you although I have never met you. I share

your grief. :cry:

I HAVE to believe that everything happens for a reason, and I just try to accept it.

For me--as a young child--their death was abandonment, and my sister and I were not taken to any kind of psychologist - it was 1951. Adults didn't even go to psychologists OR psychiatrists back then. Oh, God, I just said "back then" :)

Hope you had a good female mother/mother figure.


You now hold a special place in my heart, Egnever.....

[BlooInBloo]

10. :(((((

[Skwmom]

12. I've come to the sad conclusion that the deaths of soldiers and civilians will not

push Americans to demand the end of this war. But fortunately, the billions upon billions of dollars borrowed from China should do it.

[windoe]

13. Much too easy to start war and much to difficult to end it.. nt