Over 6500 Veteran Suicides Per Year

[VaughnB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-veterans-death-the-nations-shame.html

Hey folks just wanted to share this tragic story.

A few excerpts:
A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame


An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes (http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66431). More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began.

These unnoticed killing fields are places like New Middletown, Ohio, where Cheryl DeBow raised two sons, Michael and Ryan Yurchison, and saw them depart for Iraq. Michael, then 22, signed up soon after the 9/11 attacks.

[aranuk]

That is tragic to hear.
My sympathies for their families.

Stan

[Cartomancer]

This makes me so sad. We go over there and kill over 100,000 using the most conservative estimate. We have our troops use ammo that is depleted uranium- this includes all of the bombs and large artillery as well. We shoot them up with god knows what vaccines. Then they come home and want to kill themselves. These kind of idiotic dynamics really does make it seem very evil and almost intentional. Its almost as if they want the soldiers to die. Where is the reason for doing all of this in the first place? Sadly its probably the opium trade. So many people have died over that substance through history it is just mind boggling.

I think about this everyday and it really bothers me.

[delfine]

Highly disturbing and sad...

[Heather2017]

I'm hopeful that healing techniques for body, mind and spirit will soon become more widely available to help. Even those who have already passed on can be assisted with getting to a better place...

[778 neighbour of some guy]

You can get a man out of a war, but you can never get the war out of a man, this is so sad.

[Cilka]

They should get out of military. They will be sent to prison, but so what? A few years sitting in a prison is better than killing innocent people overseas, or committing suicide as a result of seeing all that horror and suffering.

[VaughnB]

Another side note is that PTSD has been going on from all our wars, today we've only but a remnant of surviving WWII vets, but the trauma and scars are wounds that never truly heal.

So many unanswered questions as we wander this existence, our technology races ever faster and our emotional and spiritual awareness seems atrophied as our penchant for greed, violence and selfishness linger. If we can't get past our petty differences, put aside our prejudice and overcome our fears I see little future for humanities survival.

We've only this one small blue planet to call our home, we best make sure that we cherish it, respect one another for all future generations to survive.

[Avocadess]

Cilka: I don't know how it is today, but I have a friend who graduated early at the age of 16 and at the same age enlisted in the Navy. He didn't know what was going on, but he ended up on the first boat to Vietnam. When he got there and saw what was happening he refused to participate and was thrown in the brig. Sadly, he did not just "sit in jail" for a few years. He was beaten many times by the guards. Then he was transferred to a military prison in California. Somehow he escaped -- but only for one month. After he was caught and put back in prison he was put in a cage where he was forced to stand up all the time for days at a time. Whenever he would sit or fall down guards would come in and beat him up. I HOPE this is not the case with most people in those prisons, but I am sad to say for him this did happen. =(

[Cilka]

Cilka: I don't know how it is today, but I have a friend who graduated early at the age of 16 and at the same age enlisted in the Navy. He didn't know what was going on, but he ended up on the first boat to Vietnam. When he got there and saw what was happening he refused to participate and was thrown in the brig. Sadly, he did not just "sit in jail" for a few years. He was beaten many times by the guards. Then he was transferred to a military prison in California. Somehow he escaped -- but only for one month. After he was caught and put back in prison he was put in a cage where he was forced to stand up all the time for days at a time. Whenever he would sit or fall down guards would come in and beat him up. I HOPE this is not the case with most people in those prisons, but I am sad to say for him this did happen. =(

That is sad, but I bet he was glad he did not participate in the killings. I so much respect Bradley Manning, he is one of the few with a truly beautiful soul. He should have been freed a long time ago, but then the fascists are making sure that by them keeping him imprisoned they are giving the rest of the soldiers a message of fear. If they all refused to participate in this criminal activity then the game would be over.