6000 Veterans Commited Suicide Last Year!

6000 Veterans Commited Suicide Last Year!

does it bother anyone here that 6000 veterans have committed suicide last year? (2009)

this was just brought to my attention today, and it is not sitting right. What is causing these soldiers to kill themselves, and why has it been kept quiet?

I have a few friends who are veterans of the current war. their mental stability is obviously shot, and i of course feel for them understanding with what war can do to someones mind.

www.defense.gov...
www.armytimes.com...

Mod edit: added links to corroborate the story at the request of the OP. They can be found here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 11-5-2010 by GAOTU789]

Originally posted by ugie1028


this was just brought to my attention today, and it is not sitting right. What is causing these soldiers to kill themselves, and why has it been kept quiet?

They are quietly coming home with little glory, and realizing they went to war for all the wrong reasons. Also, many had their tours extended.

This is just another Viet Nam...pointless. Nobody is delcared a winner, in something that is seeming to go on for ever, with no end in sight.

My heart goes out to them, and the families that are left to pick up the pieces.

they knew too much?


cover up?

Self Destruct Button!

Once they have fulfilled their usefulness of making war at the behest of the elite, they are programmed to self terminate. TPTB don't need trained military personnel sitting around to fight them when they finally deal the death blow to the United States Of America.

WOW! JUST WOW! Unbelievable. I bet 90% of Americans have no clue that's how many soldiers killed themselves last year.

Yes, it bothers me enormously to hear this exorbitant figure. I am very familiar with symptoms and severity of Post Traumatic Stress due to a variety of causal factors...but Combat PTSD is quite a monster unto itself. In many ways it is different, more severe, than the other types.

Sometimes I think man has evolved to the point that we are no longer cut out for war, for the bloodshed, for the destruction of our environment and the people who live within it.

The sounds, smells, images, nightmares, flashbacks, angry episodes and depression often won't go away. It's difficult to live with.

Treatment is provided by the VA, but not as intensely as is needed. It can take years to recover.

I think we just need to end war.

reply to post by LurkerMan


I don't think so. I am more convinced that its the trauma of war, and realization of the war being a big fat lie. at least the reasons why were there in the first place.

one of my freinds view before the war was to help out the country, when he came back, he was telling me how the military was helping haliburton, and not the US of A, or iraq/Afghanistan.

reply to post by kozmo


sad but true,

hope my buddies stay sane.

I remember the forum days when Bush was in power and the discussion was about the current war. Of course there were 2 camps: the supporters and the opposers to the war.

The support camp were very steadfast in their belief that the soldiers from this war would be well cared 'after' this war by the administration and a grateful public.

Obviously this has not happened.

This war was waged with the excuse of a police action and in our eyes this was another Vietnam, an endless war that did much more harm than good because of the extreme amount of sufferings it caused for both civilian and soldier.

This generated financial crisis will ensure there is a steady supply of young people desperate for jobs with the lure of 'free' education.

War, either internal or external is too profitable and effective as a means for control of the people by the ptb.

There has always been war.

Good luck getting any replies to this thread, from my experience from this thread , NOBODY CARES!

lame. in 2006 there were 30,000 suicides in USA.

I don't know how many there were in 2009, but let's say it is the same.

1 in 5 people who commit suicide are veterans. How sick is that?

Really. That is a horrible stat. We are in trouble people!

I know how it is and how some of them feel I am a veteran myself i was an 0311 in the marines served 2 tours of Iraq and a tour in Haiti for operation secure tomorrow was involuntarily recalled for a 3rd tour of iraq after my initial 4 year enlistment had to leave school early thinking it would be fine to withdraw my classes and the VA would understand... wrong wasted year of benefits. Came home cant find a job im at the end of my rope here no more unemployment and the closest thing i can find to a descent job is 45 miles away for 10.30 an hour in which most of those wages will be spent on fuel and car maintenance especially cause i dont have the newest and nicest of vehicles. Went to the career link center for help i was told my resume sucked and that I need to word things to make civilian employers understand from infantry terms that is of course after he said employers would be afraid that I may be a liability and may blow up there building under the context that going to demolitions school to protect the country was somehow worded wrong then he gave me a pamphlet for the secret service. I told him I am on the verge of homelessness cause me and my moms house we cant make payments on cause the bank she had it mortgaged through will not except payments they always register late then get accredited to something else before showing up convienently the next month. He told me there are thousands of homeless vets in PA and he wishes he could do more for me so he said he will take the time in 2 weeks to help me with my resume after telling me he needs to see other clients. Saw the congressmans office apparently he cant help me find a job the state government doesnt allow for that cause of all the free hand outs to the buddies of people that know people. Hell I got a DUI on a .05 coming home from my welcome home from Iraq party the same day I got home from spending about a year in baghdad do you think i got help. Hell no. So what exactly does it mean to be a vet friendly employer? Why will they send me to fight for my country 4 times and only give me 3 school years of benefiets. So I can understand why some vets may blow there brains out coming home trying to start a life I know outside of dealing with the war I feel like I have been set up for failure coming out even if I am an A's and B's student. So yeah it ****ing happens.

i think the catalyst is the life style...that becomes ingraned...stemming from growing up with a body count on TV....for me. 1972 vet

[edit on 10-5-2010 by GBP/JPY]

It's not that I don't care, but I am not surprised. I'm one of those people who knew this would happen before the war even started. This is a side effect of war. The military knows this too and I believe they do provide some help, but obviously it's not enough and they can't fix all the issues that veterans face. It's a sad thing...and there's no easy fix, I have noticed the commercials on tv and I think that is positive step. Families and friends of veterans are the ones who need to be especially vigilant, understanding and compassionate and seek help for their loved ones.

To all of the vets out there. Do not turn your emotions inward, turn them outward. Ask yourself, who placed you into this state? Who is responsible?

I can think of 545 reasons to stay alive. Maybe 10 more.

This country is going to hell in a handbasket paid for in fiat currency to the ferry man.

Time to stop the payments.

Stories like this highlight more issues that may be behind that epidemic.
My heart goes out to those soldiers and their families,as well.


"Pentagon Continues to Use "Personality Disorder" Discharges to Cheat Veterans out of Benefits"
www.globalresearch.ca...

An army sergeant who had received 22 honors including a Combat Action Badge prior to being wounded in Iraq by a mortar shell was told he was faking his medical symptoms and subjected to abusive treatment until he agreed to a "personality disorder"(PD) discharge.

After a doctor with the First Cavalry division wrote he was out for "secondary gain," Chuck Luther was imprisoned in a six- by eight-foot isolation chamber, ridiculed by the guards, denied regular meals and showers and kept awake by perpetual lights and blasting heavy metal music---abuses similar to the punishments inflicted on terrorist suspects by the CIA.
"They told me I wasn't a real soldier, that I was a piece of crap. All I wanted was to be treated for my injuries," 12-year veteran Luther told reporter Joshua Kors of "The Nation" magazine (April 26th). "Now suddenly I'm not a soldier. I'm a prisoner, by my own people. I felt like a caged animal in that room. That's when I started to lose it." The article is called "Disposable Soldiers: How the Pentagon is Cheating Wounded Vets."
Luther had been seven months into his deployment at Camp Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortal shell exploded at the base of his guard tower that knocked him down, slamming his head into the concrete. "I remember laying there in a daze, looking around, trying to figure out where I was at," he said. Luther suffered permanent hearing loss in his right ear, tinnitus, agonizing headaches behind his right eye, severe nosebleeds, and shoulder pain.

The sergeant took a Chapter 5-13 PD discharge in order to escape his confinement, becoming one of 22,600 soldiers so separated since 2001, a discharge that relieves the Pentagon of the responsibility and cost of long-term care for the wounded. An Army major told Luther to sign the discharge papers or "you're going to be here a lot longer." Luther recalled, "They had me broke down. At that point, I just wanted to get home." Many of the PD discharge recipients are soldiers who have served two and three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, author Kors writes.

Sgt. Angel Sandoval, who served under Luther, said Luther's insistence on his wearing ceramic plates strapped to his bulletproof vest saved his life and described Luther as "one of the greatest leaders I had." Yet this is the man the Army imprisoned when he requested medical treatment. "This should have been resolved during the Bush administration. And it should have been stopped now by the Obama administration," Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, is quoted as saying about PD discharges. "The fact that it hasn't is a national disgrace."

Luther's case is no isolated example, writes Kors, noting that in the past three years "The Nation" has uncovered more than two dozen such cases. "All the soldiers were examined, deemed physically and psychologically fit, then welcomed into the military. All performed honorably before being wounded during service...Yet after seeking treatment for their wounds, each soldier was diagnosed with a pre-existing personality disorder, then discharged and denied benefits," Kors writes...

"Soldiers are dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy"
-Henry Kissinger

No doubt he and his ilk consider soldiers to be "disposable". Men led by their hearts to do what they consider their "patriotic duty",to be used as pawns in their massive global agenda.

Truly,a disgrace.

To be honest again I think that a good bit of this isnt PTSD but a factor of a few things, we got guys that fight the fight for the country these are brave men and women that leave their homes, jobs, schools and go over to do a nasty job. They come home and their wives and husbands are different they cant find jobs and they are different and the ones that werent married like myself have a really hard time trying to find normalcy/stability in a world where a year and a half ago finding a job wasnt too bad, come home and we done borrowed tons of money from china. Help is out there I guess they did provide a suicide hot line... maybe i should call them for work. But seriously I think it is a combination of all that and not to knock the VA I think they are a great outfit but sadly they are largely understaffed and underfunded to be as effective as they could be. Trust me when i say it is demoralizing to do what you do best in a war get medals and feel like your doing a good job then you come home and realize that, that $1.75 combat action ribbon won't buy you a cup of coffee at starbucks.

reply to post by Brotherman


Thanks Brotherman, for reminding us of this aspect of the problem.
Employment, and Homelessness are huge issues, and mix that with a stress disorder in progress, and it complicates the issues.

At one time employers received some kind of "points" or recognition for hiring Vets. Not sure if that is still in place...but it should be.

I don't think it is anything to do with a guilt complex , out there killing innocent Iraqis. Maybe just a general trauma issue , and the realization that they are only idolized when in the employ of the armed services of their country. Once they are out , injured , or whatever problems they have, nobody really cares any more .

reply to post by worldwatcher


Yes, and I have seen the commercials that promise "tours of the world," help with education....blah, blah, blah......

This thread is very important, especially to people who even consider enlisting, because they don't put up front the life long, lasting effects of what your mind goes through, besides what might happen to your body.

In other words, when your tour of duty is over, it is never really over.