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Why suicide rates among veterans may be more than 22 a day

Montecresto

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(CNN) -- Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. As shocking as the number is, it may actually be higher.
The figure, released by the Department of Veterans Affairs in February, is based on the agency's own data and numbers reported by 21 states from 1999 through 2011. Those states represent about 40% of the U.S. population. The other states, including the two largest (California and Texas) and the fifth-largest (Illinois), did not make data available.
Who wasn't counted?
People like Levi Derby, who hanged himself in his grandfather's garage in Illinois on April 5, 2007. He was haunted, says his mother, Judy Caspar, by an Afghan child's death. He had handed the girl a bottle of water, and when she came forward to take it, she stepped on a land mine.

THIS IS FAILURE ON A CATASTROPHIC LEVEL, but something the hawks care to ignore.


http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/21/us/22-veteran-suicides-a-day/index.html
 
(CNN) -- Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. As shocking as the number is, it may actually be higher.
The figure, released by the Department of Veterans Affairs in February, is based on the agency's own data and numbers reported by 21 states from 1999 through 2011. Those states represent about 40% of the U.S. population. The other states, including the two largest (California and Texas) and the fifth-largest (Illinois), did not make data available.
Who wasn't counted?
People like Levi Derby, who hanged himself in his grandfather's garage in Illinois on April 5, 2007. He was haunted, says his mother, Judy Caspar, by an Afghan child's death. He had handed the girl a bottle of water, and when she came forward to take it, she stepped on a land mine.

THIS IS FAILURE ON A CATASTROPHIC LEVEL, but something the hawks care to ignore.


Why suicide rate among veterans may be more than 22 a day - CNN.com


This literally makes me want to cry, anybody who says the VA hasn't failed these men & woman is completely delusional. The government can't manage this, how can then be expected manage the entirety of the American people........
 
Then maybe we shouldn't have so many pointless wars where we need to put these people into harm's way?
 
Then maybe we shouldn't have so many pointless wars where we need to put these people into harm's way?

Aha, now were making progress. Notice the hawks shying away.
 
Aha, now were making progress. Notice the hawks shying away.

There's nothing wrong with war when there's a need for it, but the U.S. has been running around the planet swinging it's dick for decades now. We don't need these wars, we want to show everyone that we're hot stuff.
 
There's nothing wrong with war when there's a need for it, but the U.S. has been running around the planet swinging it's dick for decades now. We don't need these wars, we want to show everyone that we're hot stuff.

Exactly. And yes I don't have a problem with a true DOD, I agree we don't need this DOO anymore.
 
There's nothing wrong with war when there's a need for it, but the U.S. has been running around the planet swinging it's dick for decades now. We don't need these wars, we want to show everyone that we're hot stuff.

It's all about profit now, you realize that don't you. Either growing it or protecting our ability to maintain our position of economic power.

That aside if some young man or woman joins believing that there is some nobility in what they are doing...to later turn to suicide because they either won't (because they are too proud) or can't get the help they need is heartbreaking. We need to provide better resources for these people and the fact that we don't is just another reflection of how we use them people for personal gain then abandon them. It's shameful.
 
If 40 or 50 flag draped caskets were being unloaded in front of Americans everyday as casualties of our war on Muslims there might be a larger outcry to stop the nonsense.
 
Aha, now were making progress. Notice the hawks shying away.

They/we are probably staying away because other than the opening post there hasn't been enough intelligence demonstrated here for us to feed upon.

Veteran healthcare, or rather the failure of it, has been covered before. No need to keep bitching about it when Obama is in office and the Dems have the Senate. Thankfully, the GOP at least has the house, so we haven't totally defunded veteran care to pay for welfare and medicaid yet.
 
They/we are probably staying away because other than the opening post there hasn't been enough intelligence demonstrated here for us to feed upon.

Veteran healthcare, or rather the failure of it, has been covered before. No need to keep bitching about it when Obama is in office and the Dems have the Senate. Thankfully, the GOP at least has the house, so we haven't totally defunded veteran care to pay for welfare and medicaid yet.


This certainly includes but goes way deeper than veteran healthcare.
 
(THIS IS FAILURE ON A CATASTROPHIC LEVEL, but something the hawks care to ignore.


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And why is this political ?

Oh that's right, the left in the name of political correctness have dumbed down the military so much our soldiers and Marines aren't being properly trained to deal with the realities of war.

That was a good argument until it was discovered that over half of the vets who committed suicide were never deployed outside of the CONUS.
 
The left, not me dude. Not on the right either.
 
If 40 or 50 flag draped caskets were being unloaded in front of Americans everyday as casualties of our war on Muslims there might be a larger outcry to stop the nonsense.


That's rubbish. There is no US war on Muslims. Some of our strongest allies are Muslim countries. All your posts are doing is spreading falsehoods, propaganda, and hatred. What is your purpose for doing this?
 
That's rubbish. There is no US war on Muslims. Some of our strongest allies are Muslim countries. All your posts are doing is spreading falsehoods, propaganda, and hatred. What is your purpose for doing this?

Di, again please see post #78 in the suicide attack on a Pakistani church thread.
 
Di, again please see post #78 in the suicide attack on a Pakistani church thread.
Monte, again I point out the futility of looking for post #78 in a thread that only has 37 posts. And my name is DiAnna.
 
Then maybe we shouldn't have so many pointless wars where we need to put these people into harm's way?

Not only that, but the way we treat them once they've been shipped overseas is nothing short of criminal.

In Vietnam, soldiers rarely, if ever, served more than two tours. These days, you have guys serving four, five tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, and serving longer tours, and that is way too much time to have your **** wound that tight. And these guys are coming back with serious freaking problems.
 
And why is this political ?

Oh that's right, the left in the name of political correctness have dumbed down the military so much our soldiers and Marines aren't being properly trained to deal with the realities of war.

That was a good argument until it was discovered that over half of the vets who committed suicide were never deployed outside of the CONUS.

Oh, shut up. Once again, APACHE has to find some way to blame "the left," and he's using the bodies of dead veterans to do it. Disgusting.
 
Not only that, but the way we treat them once they've been shipped overseas is nothing short of criminal.

In Vietnam, soldiers rarely, if ever, served more than two tours. These days, you have guys serving four, five tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, and serving longer tours, and that is way too much time to have your **** wound that tight. And these guys are coming back with serious freaking problems.

With no R&R trips to the Philippines or Thailand and no beer. Bastards.
 
They/we are probably staying away because other than the opening post there hasn't been enough intelligence demonstrated here for us to feed upon.

Veteran healthcare, or rather the failure of it, has been covered before. No need to keep bitching about it when Obama is in office and the Dems have the Senate. Thankfully, the GOP at least has the house, so we haven't totally defunded veteran care to pay for welfare and medicaid yet.

Yeah, it's Democrats who try to cut funding for veterans.

GOP Congressman Calls for Massive Cuts in Veterans Funding | Veterans Today
 
Oh, shut up. Once again, APACHE has to find some way to blame "the left," and he's using the bodies of dead veterans to do it. Disgusting.

It would be disgusting except that the left, in the form of Obama and Dems, have a lot to do with why those veterans are now bodies instead of living people. The way the left treats the military as a lab for social experiments and the way they threat veterans truly is disgusting.
 
It would be disgusting except that the left, in the form of Obama and Dems, have a lot to do with why those veterans are now bodies instead of living people. The way the left treats the military as a lab for social experiments and the way they threat veterans truly is disgusting.

That's sheer nonsense. Those veterans committed suicide because of what, gays in the military? The "left" treats veterans far better than the "right" does these days.
 
Monte, again I point out the futility of looking for post #78 in a thread that only has 37 posts. And my name is DiAnna.

I made the correction for you in the other thread, but you call me Monte as you point out your name isn't Di. Nice, I have nothing further to say to you.
 
I made the correction for you in the other thread, but you call me Monte as you point out your name isn't Di. Nice, I have nothing further to say to you.

You hadn't yet made that correction when I wrote the quoted post, and I presumed you found shortening someone's name to be a sign of friendliness, since you did so the very first time you spoke to me. Judging by your reaction when I returned the favor, apparently it was the opposite! :lol:

However, I would still like you to support your claim that America has declared war on Muslims, and tie it to your OP which is the unacceptable suicide rate among returning Veterans, which in my opinion are not being given the help they need by an overworked, underfunded VA. This is a debate site. When you open a thread, it helps if you support your opinions. :)
 
You hadn't yet made that correction when I wrote the quoted post, and I presumed you found shortening someone's name to be a sign of friendliness, since you did so the very first time you spoke to me. Judging by your reaction when I returned the favor, apparently it was the opposite! :lol:

However, I would still like you to support your claim that America has declared war on Muslims, and tie it to your OP which is the unacceptable suicide rate among returning Veterans, which in my opinion are not being given the help they need by an overworked, underfunded VA. This is a debate site. When you open a thread, it helps if you support your opinions. :)

You criticised me for shortening your name while shortening mine which is quite hypocritical. The rest is up but you reject it, your perogative.
 
Veteran suicide rates alone do not necessarily tell us that VA care has failed. Maybe other details (such as observing that there are veterans seeking help and not getting it) demonstrate a failure, but we can't just notice a high suicide rate and then go on auto-blame mode against someone for not somehow preventing those suicides.

I think there is a mix of both here, i.e. some instances of VA care being deficient and people committing suicide while on long wait lists for help, but also I think that even with the most utopian scenario of a comprehensive array of instantaneously available world-class mental health care... we'd still see high suicide rates among veterans.

So my opinion is that yes we should be alert for possible shortcomings of VA care and think critically about how to beef it up if needed, as well as to be more vocal (both liberals and conservatives) about non-defensive military interventions in oil-rich nations.

But I also think we should be cautious not to be idiots about tossing around blame for people killing themselves.
 
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