Time to Pay the Price of War (Addressing Troop Suicides & Mental Health)...

[Indi Guy]

Source: Huffington Post

...This past July, 38 American soldiers committed suicide, the highest rate since the Army began keeping count. A veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes. If you have ever known someone who lost a family member to suicide, you've had a glimpse of the devastation suicide leaves in its wake.

...On Aug. 31, President Obama signaled that the government is making the mental health of our service members and veterans a top priority. Obama issued an executive order called "Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families" that mandates several essential concrete measures. And while each and every one of these measures is laudable and critical, one component is missing from the order: funding.

...While the executive order says all the right things, on closer inspection these statements are meaningless without providing for funding. For the order to be more than rhetoric, uttered during a campaign, the administration must forcefully present the case to Congress: You voted for these wars, wars for which you allocated no money.

The time has come to pay the price.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leila-levinson/veterans-mental-health_b_1898771.html

[left on green only]

1. It looks like we are losing more of our troops to suicide than we are to combat.

I wonder if it would go a long way towards providing funding for these programs if President Obama could make an executive order forcing military recruitment personnel to provide documentation to every potential draftee, advising them that once they sign up, the greatest danger to the longevity of their lives will be an act of self destruction.

I know learning that would sure sober my ass up, if I was thinking that being in the military was going to be an easy way out of the financial problems in my life, (as in I can't find a job elsewhere).

But as for those folks who join because they just want to see the world, I fear that nothing they are shown will help them.

[Indi Guy]

2. Well said. n/t

[mountain grammy]

3. Devastating and depressing.

all the flag waving patriots and the corrupt bush/cheney/rumsfeld team that took us here are criminals. Looks like our "superhero" troops are just human after all. In the words of Queen Ann, "stop it." If only we could find a way.

[Indi Guy]

6. Well...

...this is one of many messes the previous admin left for Obama to clean up. And a very sad mess it is indeed.

[unhappycamper]

4. K&R

The military rags have had a increasing number of stories about suicide prevention. Apparently they are also on another kick: preventing military sexual trauma.

It's not by choice; sequestration is forcing them to address these issues. Fewer bucks means fewer people, aircraft, weapons and naval craft.

[The River]

5. It's Often a Tactical Military Decision

Suicide is often the only way to deny your enemy the "honor" of killing you.
They can over-run your position and mutilate your body but only you
can deny them the ability to take your life when you DIY.

As Kipling wrote during the British occupation of
Afghanistan in "The Young British Soldier"

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

From the "300" Greeks who stopped the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae to the
Jewish rebels at Masada, history is rife with suicidal last stands. "Death Before Dishonor"
is more than just a tattoo on a soldiers arm, it's an attitude.

When the internal enemy appears to be winning, when we're tired of fighting a system
that ignores us, when we loose our jobs, families or physical health, suicide seems a more
honorable form surrender than simply admitting defeat.

I don't know how much "effect" will be caused by Congresses failure to pass the[link:http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/veterans-jobs-bill-blocked-in-the-senate/| Veterans
Jobs Bill] but I'm sure there will be some. The Republican'ts should be ashamed.

[They_Live]

7. I overheard a phone conversation

between a two soldiers the other day, in the parking lot of a small gym where my child has Tae Kwon Do lessons. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop (in fact I had moved away from him to give him some personal space), but he was talking rather loud on his phone. He was talking about being in the service for 12 years now and how the VA hospital folks had cancelled 14 appointments in row that he had made, without any real reason. He said no one cares when you return from deployment, no support. "All I have to show for it is getting shot twice, and being almost blind in one eye due to a IED." He then spoke of another friend of his who had survived an explosion, but when he was operated on, the military surgeons 'messed up' and now his friend is unable to walk for the rest of his life.

I wanted to say something to him, but I knew it wasn't the right time (or any of my business) He was angry and sad. After hearing him talk, so was I.

[cr8tvlde]

8. And the GOP who sends them with flags a-waving, turns them down when they return.

I stopped to donate at a WalMart VFW table. (Red State Alert.) I almost absently asked if they knew about the recent vote to deny the VA, and all three of them...I'd guess an average of 70 years old...looked down and shook their heads, Yes. My heart nearly broke.

I'm going back tomorrow...with another donation. To hell with the gutless Republican-led traitors.