1,892
US Veterans Are Thought To Have Committed Suicide Since January 1,
2014
31
March, 2014
Nearly
1,900 military veterans are thought to have taken
their own lives in just 2014 alone,
according to an estimate from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America, ABC reports.
Extrapolating
from a 2012
VA report that
found 22 veterans took their lives each day in 2009 and 2010, IAVA
members planted 1,892 flags on the National Mall Thursday to
commemorate the staggering figure.
"We
are losing too many of our brothers and sisters nationwide. And we’re
storming the hill to change history and transform a landscape so that
America will truly take care of its own who have shouldered the
burdens of war,” said IAVA Founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff in a
statement to Business Insider.
Planting
the flags was part of a push from IAVA to "Storm the Hill"
and get legislation passed to combat suicide within the military
ranks. It's a huge issue — with more than half of the 2.6 million
veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan still struggling with physical or
mental health problems — many of which know a fellow service member
who has attempted or committed suicide, Washington Post reports.
IAVA's
efforts have made an impact, as Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.), the first
Iraq war veteran to serve in the senate, introduced comprehensive
legislation that would increase mental health professionals at VA,
enhance collaboration with the Pentagon, and review cases of soldiers
who may have been wrongly discharged for "invisible wounds."
"Returning
home from combat does not erase what happened there, and yet red tape
and government dysfunction have blocked access to the care that saves
lives," Walsh said in a statement to Business Insider. "It
is our duty to come together for real solutions for our heroes."
S.2182, or
the Suicide Prevention for America's Veterans Act, now heads to the
Senate Veterans' Affairs committee.
There will be NO sympathy from me. The United Slaves of Amerika does not have a draft. Military service is VOLUNTEER. So those that went, are expected to understand why they were going, it was their choice (even if economic circumstances "forced" them to). Many did not enlist and were just as economically deprived - so those that went, have to accept their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteWe all know some went because they wanted to be blooded. This is common knowledge. And many others, after having gone, reveled in their "status" as combat veterans. This nothing to be proud of, it is an earmark of shame in reality. To brag that you can kill and have killed, to take another life unjustly as these soldiers did - this is shameful, but they are not thinking clearly.
And it is those decisions to join, to enlist, to "serve the country" that matter - and why I feel no sympathy for those that have chosen to end their lives. America's veterans are killers, trained murderers, taught to murder whoever they are sent to "help" (just obeying "orders"). The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars were the blooded ground of nearly 2 million civilians - killed by American "troops" just "doing their jobs".
I could not honor a civilian that thought it was his "job" to kill an innocent, so why should I honor a soldier that did and does the same? I am not proud of them and never have been. I do not support the troops, this is a statement that is intended to brainwash the masses into accepting anything. This I cannot do.
There was and is a pattern of slaughter (and torture) that emerged from both wars too - as we all know. It was soldiers from the United Slaves of Amerika that did this. Almost nobody was held accountable here either.
These actions, and the guilt associated (and the difficulty of reintergration into a non-combat society that is also economically depressed) have led to thousands of suicides. I do not feel any sympathy for those that returned with guilt from their crimes. To do so would require me to forgive every murderer who has remorse, which I also cannot do.
Every man and woman had a choice to REFUSE. Only a few courageous men and woman actually did so.
They are the real heroes we should be honoring.