The Shitty Way We Treat Our Vets
According to an article on LiveLeak.com, 18 veterans commit suicide every day, and there are 1,000 attempts per month. I did a quick google search and it’s all over the net. I learned from a year old CBS news report that veteran suicide rates are twice as high as the regular population. Even the government knows that suicide rates among veterans from the Iraq war are “epidemic.” The comments on this link are depressing. It just makes me sick.
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I’m amazed that the suicide rate is only twice as high for vets as for the general population. It would probably be a lot higher — given the inadequate support the government gives wounded warriors — but the kind of guys who volunteer to serve in the military are probably a lot tougher than the average civilian. The inspiring stories of wounded warriors triumphing over grievous injuries that we encounter at http://www.ourfinest.org support this idea. As a Korean veteran, I saw guys torn apart. Today, troops survive terrible wounds that would have doomed them in earlier wars. I honestly don’t know if I have what it takes to cope with losing limbs and eyes. Some of the most amazing heroics occur not on the battlefield but afterwards.
Mark Draper, Ph.D.
President
Our Finest.Org
If this has you upset, then don’t even bother to read the excellent WP expose on the treatment of our brave soldiers in the VA system because the Bush administration is only willing to “support our troops” with words not deeds.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/walter-reed/index.html
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
~Mark Twain
~S