CBS News Investigates Shocking Rate Of Veteran Suicides
By Logan Murphy Wednesday Nov 14, 2007 2:01pm
Part I: Courtesy Watchdog.org
Part II: 
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Download | play (h/t Heather)
CBS News aired the results of their 5 month investigation into veteran suicides this evening and what they found was devastating. In 2005 alone, 125 veterans committed suicide each week and of the more than 88,000 vets returning from Iraq, more than 28% of them have experienced mental health problems. CBS' Armen Keteyian talked with Paul Sullivan of Veterans For Common Sense who had this to say about the dismal system the VA has for tracking veteran suicides;
Sullivan: "We call it the don't look, don't find policy. If the VA doesn't collect the data, then they don't have to do anything about it."
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Those FUCKING COWARDS. How dare these phoney dead soldiers kill themselves and make the Bush Administration look bad. If they want to die they can DO IT ON THE BATTLEFIELD!!!
Sorry about the joking but this is a fucking tragedy and I don't know how to deal with it.
this story needs to be squashed post-haste, lest it have a deleterious effect on our war-based economy.
if word gets out that war is hell, then where does that leave a nation that ONLY has war and violence left as a way to project its influence???
can we declare war on war?
CBS is committing "treason" by reporting the Rate Of Veteran Suicides.
~reich-wing talking point 22341.
I actually heard a Gal from the VA on PBS the other day say in defense of the VA, that they were not in the Long Term Care business, She said they are a support group for emergencies.
Anyone else hear that program?
From now on all future wars shall be fought on the digital battlefield like Herr Bush did a week ago. One thing though? I know of no on-line war game that let's you sit in the Texas National Guard? Is that a special level on Call of Duty 4, you know, one that only rich, well connected retards can afford?
These statistics, and the serious issues that it raises, could have easily been found quite a while ago if the Media paid a little more attention to the great work going on in the the left Blogosphere. As per usual the media is way behind the curve in what it labels as "News"... But at least they are covering the issue, even if they are almost a year behind the Blogs.
See, all you liberals who want the troops to come home just want them to kill themselves. Obviously the safest place for the troops is Iraq where they are too worried about getting blown up by an IED to think about killing themselves. Why do you hate the troops so much?
(Judging by the VA psychiatrist they included in the interview (Katz), it's no wonder the mental health care is so screwed up. He looked like he could use a good shrink.)
Seriously, this information on the number of suicides among vets is not only shocking but deeply disturbing. I'm sorry to say though, it's not surprising considering the folks who are in charge. Cheney and Bush and their PNAC, neo-con buddies started this war with one purpose - to steal oil and get rich(er). They do not care who dies, who gets maimed, who suffers from mental illness, or who spends the rest of their lives living in a box on the street. In fact, I'll bet behind closed doors they snicker and pat each other on the back because they've been able to put more of the funds that should be earmarked for the Vets into the pockets of the Halliburton and Blackwater creeps, as well as their own.
They are sociopaths - none of them has a conscience. I'm still wondering what it will take for the majority of Americans to wake up. How many of them can endure the deaths if their children in a useless, needless war and from suicide before they say enough!
It is past time to IMPEACH, INDICT, TRY, and INCARCERATE all of the criminals running our country.
The Republicans pretend to care about babies only until they are born, and about soldiers only until they are discharged. Then they stop pretending to care.
Out of curiosity I wonder how those percentages compare with other wars?
There is a book, it came out in 2005, "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell", by John Crawford. He simply tells what his life was like when he served in Iraq and what happened to him when he came home.
There are times that he does things in Iraq which will make you somewhat angry. But when he describes his phone calls from and to his wife, you see the different world he was living in over there. She is telling him about things that happened around her life and he is trying not to tell her that a dead man's brains were sprayed on him that same day.
When he gets home they divorce and he is fu*king depressed. As far as I know, he's still alive. I sure hope so.
can we declare war on war?
Oh, how I wish we could. I really, really do. This is saddening and reprehensible; this man needs to be tried for crimes against humanity, and emotional distress, both to the veterans and the families of veterans. Why must this go on?
This is brought to you by the Greedy Old Plutocrats, the party of personal responsibility. You bleeding heart libs should realise-These soldiers CHOSE to kill themselves.
The US Government: Getting soldiers to kill themselves over here, if they didn't get killed over there.
Congradulations CBS! At last an oasis in the desert which is network and cable news! I hope we see more of this. Is CBS finally returning to real news? Now maybe meaningful discussion can begin among reasonable voices who really care about this country. This is not a video game.
Grumbles, it sure isn't a video game, but I think to some people it kinda is. They have no relatives involved, so no chance for pain. They sit in front of Fox news shows and cheer for the home team. Then they go about their business until the next war news comes on. Once again they cheer for the home team and that about covers their emotional involvement with the war.
125 per week? Over 6,000 per year? I that's correct, then we have a mental health crisis never seen before at home. I can't believe the Vietnam veteran suicide rate was ever that high.
Now that made me cry. How can anyone still have support for this maladministration?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xf-aCg9uchY
Nice to see mainstream media finally doing their job. A little late though, having given this administration a free pass for 6 years. I long to see Bush and Cheney marched into the Hague for war crimes. God it hurts to see what has become of this country and it's values. Shame on all of us for allowing it to come to such a sad state. I want my country back, the one that I was proud of.
Each week in the year 2005? Is this a fact. Are you telling me that 45,625 vets committed suicide in the year 2005? If this is true then this should be front page news.
a no win war from no brain chimpy
"supportin' the troops" Bush and the rest of his anti american republican mob are using, abusing and throwing away the pride of the USA.....
America needs to wake up to the fact that things here in the US are bad.. really really bad. Yet everyone seems to not be paying attention. How much worse does it need to get? Wake up!
So, is this what the right wing means when they scream "Support the Troops"?
Stuff like this is making me wonder just what, exactly, is the right's problem with the military. I mean, they want to keep them over in Iraq fighting a lost cause while they continue to get killed or maimed and when they finally do get back home in spite of the right's efforts to keep them over there, the right doesn't want to see, hear or deal with them and label as "unpatriotic" and "unAmerican" the people who advocate for the military to receive better care and point out the federal government is not taking care of these brave people who put everything on the line. Really, who's not supporting the troops?
tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 19:
45,625 would be 125 soldiers per day. At 125 per week, 6500 would be the number of soldiers that year.
Still front page news in my opinion.
this dr. ira katz guy looked and sounded like a daily show character...
U.S. Ponders War Message, and How Best to Deliver It By THOM SHANKER
A complex debate is under way within the State Department and Pentagon about how to shape and transmit their messages -- to their own personnel, to the nation at large and overseas during a time of war.
.....
These bastards are only concerned with how to sell war, not with any consequences.
Symon @ 24:
Thanks for the correction. I was gasping for air over here. I agree still too many.
I'm sure this is part of the "non-combat" casualty figures from DoD.
tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 19:
According to my calculations, it's 6,500 veterans who committed suicide in 2005. You multiplied by 365. Weeks, not days.
Still a shocking number, to be sure. A mental health crisis for our military, and they keep cutting, or trying to cut, funding for VA benefits.
i keep asking myself, "How are they going to fuck things up TODAY? or, what are we going to find out that they fucked up today?"
If you don't check for formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, no one can complain or get sued.
GOP: Support the troops *to their graves*
quote: 'If this doesn't wake people up, nothing will'
I am betting on the 'nothing will'.
tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 19:
You might want to check your math, chummer. 125 x 52 = 6500,
old hack @ 22:
who says the msm isn't trying to pick our candidates for us?
125 a week??????????????????????? thats got to be a mistake ...thats more than are getting killed in action!!
Handsome Pete @ 29:
they are also sending back people who still need all sorts of medical help. my friend's son was shot in the leg and blown up by an IED and has irremovable shrapnel in his leg and they are still evaluating him for return to duty.
I believe they are operating under the principle of "Death means no long-term costs". I said that without sarcasm.
Simon @ 35:
with 4000 confirmed dead from Iraq versus 6500 from suicide, I think it screams out loud that there's a problem.
Makes you wonder what they pump em full of over there ? that tallied with the horendous images wittnessed.
If I had come home and gotten real information on why I had fought and killed, and seen buddies injured and killed for Bush/Cheney and company, I think I'd be suicidial too.
Politically motivated, huh?
Did all those veterans die just to spite Bush? I don't think so.
They should be counted as a casualty of the Iraq and Afghan war but you know they wont. Bush probably never wanted these numbers to come out in the first place. EVIL CBS!!!!
This is disgusting...these repugs lash out against for not supporting the troops, when it's
painfully obvious their party clearly doesn't support them...I am so damn angry at this administration....and the repugs, for obvious reasons...and shame on the dems for doing nothing more than looking wooried and wringing their pathetic little money grubbing hands!
Ok, lets add this up. Since the beginning of the war, troops have pulled around 3 tours in Iraq, enough to drive anyone to suicide. According to the video, over 120 soldiers took their life each week in 2005, and with these ongoing deployments it's probably now worse. The VA is giving us bull they have an on going investigation, when this reporter did it in a couple of weeks.
Not counting 2002 thru 2004, and staying with 120 figure, which is probably higher now, and counting troops killed in action.
2005 suicides: 6240
2006 suicides: 6240
2007 suicides: 6240
Killed in action: 3861
= 22581 dead (imagine if we had the figures for 2002-2004 to add)
So this is what the GOP mean by supporting the troops!
I think they go to war and do what they are told being in the battlefield and such but when they come home and think about all the innocent people that they killed or saw being killed at the hands of our troops these men can't handle the guilt.
"Sullivan: “We call it the don’t look, don’t find policy. If the VA doesn’t collect the data, then they don’t have to do anything about it."
this is bushco policy for supporting the troops, ignore any responsibility for his delusional illegal war. bush is a fucking bastard.
The sad truth is that suicides among American troops are going to skyrocket.
Mental illness will be rampant. They are coming home to no jobs, no prospects, terrible memories of a horrible war while they stay dirt poor and Bush and his business associates get richer and richer.
What fools these working class soldiers were. It's so sad.
The working poor voting Republican and supporting rich people's wars and believe the b.s. on Fox News.
You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half.
Jewel @ 44:
this is exactly the burden any moral person will carry inside. the troops are burdened with following illegal orders to commit murder for bush's delusional folly.
Suicides my ass.
REMEMBER VINCE FOSTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4bO2sWMpxU
I'm not trying to belittle the significance of high rates of suicide among Veterans, but many of you seem to be missing an important factor that is "skewing" your interpretation. There are many more veterans (in total) than there are Iraq War veterans. Here is what I come up with in a short search ...
Total # of Veterans - approx. 24,000,000
# of Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans - approx. 200,000
So, you can see that Iraq veterans make up less than 1% of the total veteran population. If we assume that the suicide rate is distributed proportionately among the veteran population, then the suicide rate among Iraq veterans works out to about 1 per week. Now, the report stated that the suicide rate among younger veterans was approximately 2 times that of the general veteran population (4 times the national average). I think it safe to assume that most of the younger population of veterans have served in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. So, erring on the side of inclusion as an Iraq War veteran, we might be able to up the suicide rate of Iraq War veterans to 2 per week. That is still a big number that needs to be reported on and exposed to the flag-waving public. But its not the crazy numbers being touted above.
Garrie
Tear's, a co-worker loss her son in 2007 due to suicide, they thought that he had gone out over the weekend, but when he didn't return by Sunday they began to worry. They looked all over for him, then his father went up to the attic of the house and found he had hung himself. I remember going to the funeral and looking at his Army military picture and looking at him dress in his military uniform and feeling such a terrible loss and angrier that this just shouldn't have happen to this brave young man. Apparently he had severed in Iraq and witness a friend and fellow soldier lose his life. He had a difficult time adjusting when he returned home and his family didn't know where to turn for help.
Garrie @ 51:
Garrie, you're embarrassing yourself!
Garrie @ 51:
This report is about veterans of Iraq, stop trying to downplay it.
Vince Foster my ass....but, but, but.....good grief
Back in the good old days when men like my father were released from Korean Prison Camps when they returned to our country they were treated with the respect they obviously earned with not only medical help but schooling help as well. What a concept huh? PSTD is a major problem being ignored for reasons related more to money than compassion and is a tragedy for our returning troops. The republicans and bush in particular use "support the troops" as a campagn slogan not as actual policy, at the troops expense.
the cons don't believe in PTSD. They think it's "spiritual attacks"
A-NOTHER gift from the Bush administration and its warmongering buddies.. Gee Thanks George... heckovajob dude.. heckovajob..... Poetic justice would be one of these vets hunting YOUR punkass down instead Bush... You know, for a little tete-atete chit-chat... Maybe some crumpets and tea.
Maybe if you weren't gutting V.A. benefits at the same time your putting these people thru this neverending hell via stoploss and repeated tours of duty ad nuseum, we wouldn't have this level of suicide spiking tragedy....But you wouldn't have a clue about any of that would you George.. You couldn't even finish out a sweetheart deal in the air national guard back in the day... You chickenshit bastard..............JD
I hope history adds these numbers to the number of casualties in the field. That would bring the US dead to around 20,000, much more on par with the 1963-7 figures on Viet Nam.
Isn't it fun watching our military and the country slide farther and farther into a cesspool of despair? Someone needs to water-board Cheney and Bush, then take a..........
Well you get the picture.
So here is the my question- I watched the news tonight- no PartII so when is part II, I mean they are not going to just do part one and walk away are they????
*6500 suicides in 2005* -- and we didn't hear a peep about it?
125 a WEEK? Yet our news agencies "didn't notice"?
andy @ 38:
That remind me. Remember during the beginning of chimpy's war there were tons of heroin? I think they kept the soldiers hopped all the time. It was a strange story.
hghgjh @ 1:
What a sad little monkey you are, try several bottles of sleeping pills followed by a quart of Vodka, that should do nicely
Here are the facts: 1.5 million U.S. service members sent to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 700,000 are now veterans. 264,000 were treated at VA hospitals already. 202,000 filed disability claims against VA already. 100,000 are being treated by VA for mental health conditions. If the same pattern of 50% healthcare use from the 1991 Gulf War is used to estimate Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran healthcare use, then VA can expect more than 700,000 new combat veteran patients and claims from these two wars. The cost to taxpayers is up to $700 billion over the next 40 years. And VA has no plan to provide care or benefits. That's what the Bush Administration doesn't want you to know. Paul Sullivan, Veterans for Common Sense. www.VeteransForCommonSense.org
pissed off patricia @ 10:
I read that last year POP. Good book. And I hope he is holding up OK too!
CoIntelPRo @ 37:
The 125 a week figure is all veterans not just Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans. Not that that makes the crisis any less severe.
According to the American Associatio of Suicidology
http://www.suicidology.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=21
32,439 people killed themselves in the US in 2004. That equals 623 people a week. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist at the VA said the statitistics are being dramatized. The suicide rate for veterans is close to that of the general public. Mind you, she doesn't MIND that the statitistics are dramatized if it brings more money to the VA. BUT, she also said that the extra money usually doesn't get to the people who need it. Oh what a surprise.
Paul (@63),
Can you give a citation of your figure of 700,000 Iraq & Afghanistan War veterans? I went to the VA website and could only find a figure of around 200,000. That figure could have been dated though, so your citation would be helpful.
Ali (@66),
The figures may be dramatized, somewhat, by citing total number of suicides among the entire veteran population (because the total veteran population is much larger than the veterans of the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars). But the suicide rate among veterans is twice that of the general population and nearly 3-4 times higher among younger veterans. And, that is still a pretty significant difference.
Garrie
pissed off patricia @ 10:
I believe this study involves ALL Veterans, including Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and other Veterans who have served in hot spots around the world. Veteran suicides taken as a group are higher in comparison to the civilian population. This must be horrible for the families involved since some life insurance doesn't cover suicide. Things are already tough as it is for the families and the vets and when they leave the world so tragically it just compounds the problem.
Meanwhile, Bush and his oily friends profit from the sacrifice. It's disgusting. All those neo-cons should be strung up.
Another statistic not well publicized is dissertions and those not willing to return to Iraq. That number is pretty high as well.
The Vets sure are getting the short end of the stick in all respects in serving.
jr @ 55:
LOL. Yea, the cons wouldn't even know what PTSD is as a result in serving because none of them ever served in a war or the military.
Rusty Shackleford @ 48:
Gawd, you are comparing one person to thousands of vets.
REMEMBER ANDY WARHOL
Jack Damage @ 56:
Awh man! I wish I could sum up the absurd as well as you.
Nicely done.
thats very deceptive to include ALL veterans of ALL wars into the Iraq/Afghan numbers
on suicide....but thats what propaganda does.
winkie
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/15/MN07TBVHC...
Like any Reslugs care about our troops and their survival.
pissed off patricia @ 10:
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