Military suicides rising, even as combat
eases
WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides are
surging among America’s troops, averaging nearly one a day this year — the
fastest pace in the nation’s decade of war.
The 154 suicides for active-duty
troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed
in action in Afghanistan — about 50 percent more — according to Pentagon
statistics obtained by The Associated Press.
June 14, 2012 - A legal technicality
is preventing the Pentagon from spending millions of dollars set aside to curb
suicides, even as suicide in the ranks is on the rise, a nonprofit advocacy
group says.
The Pentagon has not spent much of
some $8 million Congress has provided for suicide prevention because the funds
are allocated only for “in-house,” or hospital, care — not education and
outreach programs, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The funds, allocated to the Defense
Health Program, can be used only after a service member has attempted suicide
and is receiving treatment, not before
y JAKE SHERMAN and MATT DOBIAS |
7/11/12 7:45 PM EDT Updated: 7/12/12 7:39 AM EDT
Even as they cheer their “Obamacare” repeal vote, here’s a reality check: House
Republicans have done next to nothing they promised they would when it comes to
health care.
Sure, they’ve voted to
kill parts of President Barack Obama’s law
more than 30 times, slashing funding, using the votes as red meat to rally the
base — even squeezing some into law.
However, they’ve fallen short
of what they promised the American people they would do when it comes to actual health care policy.
Flash back to the campaign promises of 2010: GOP leadership told voters
they would “enact medical liability reform,” allow Americans to buy health
insurance across state lines, expand health savings accounts, “ensure access
for patients with pre-existing conditions” and “permanently prohibit taxpayer
funding of abortion.
Cassi Creek:
One of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, or coast
guard is dying every day by his or her own hand. They are reaching the bottom of an emotional
pit that they can’t climb out of alone.
Something in their military service, a single searing event, multiple
instances that took them to the razor-edged boundary that separates sanity and
duty from despair and the mental demands of combat, or the continual demands
for personal sacrifice that stem from a nation unwilling to take part in the
wars it sends men and women out to fight, but willing to ignore the needs of
those men and women when they are no longer active on the battle field.
They may
reach that dark point within days of their injury. They may reach an accord with their selves
that allows them to function as if nothing had happened for years. More, now, are recognizing their need for
help to deal with PTSD, and are stepping away from the military’s old culture
that denies PTSD and other injuries of that nature.
The Afghan
war is becoming less and less supported by the American public. As the number of troops deployed decreases,
the number of Americans directly affected decreases as well. Yet the risk of combat death and the particularly
ignoble loss of life to our supposed allies, Afghan troops and police who are
actually Taliban or Taliban supporters, affects every troop we have in
theater. That high degree of continual
risk at every step one takes quickly wears away the veneer of normalcy that our
troops need to retrieve an put on again before trying to interact with a society
and nation in which fewer and fewer members have the slightest awareness of
what they have done, where they have been.
When they
reach the point where they can ask for help, there is often no help or next to
no help. The armed forces and the VA are
finally trying to provide psychiatric treatment for these patients. They seriously want to prevent the increase
in suicides that now threaten to eclipse the number of deaths in combat.
The major
factor preventing the necessary psychiatric screening and treatment is
cost. Congress has rubberstamped two
wars that have flooded the military and veterans health care systems with large
numbers of grievously wounded veterans and with many patients needing extensive
rehab services for the rest of their lives.
Less apparent but equally present are the less physically damaged and
the thousands of men and women dating back to WWII who deal with PTSD every
day. The risk of suicide is high among
these patients.
Congress
ignores its responsibility to our veterans.
The members like to be seen praising our troops and to take highly
protected trips to see the war for re-election purposes. They don’t like to pay for the privilege.
If you are, a
U.S. veteran with PTSD the Democrats will do little to help you. The GOP/teavangelists will do even less to
help you. After all, helping veterans
means raising revenues to pay for the necessary services. The GOP/teavangelists are not going to raise
the necessary tax revenues because the little dweeb, Norquist, might rat them
out to voters who have no concern for veterans.
Congress, the
GOP/teavanagelists, won’t fund preventive care to lower the incidence of suicide;
they will only provide funding for people who make the most extreme appeal for
help. Soldier’s lives, preserving them,
are of less concern than displeasing a non-elected lobbyist. The GOP/teavangelists won’t provide health
care for veterans, but they will make a gesture by repealing, symbolically, the
affordable health care act – helpful to veterans’ families.
Here’s a gesture from me to a Congress that values Grover
Norquist more than the nation’s veterans!
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