3 February 2008
Five U.S. soldiers try to kill themselves every day, over 2,000 tried in 2007. To me, this is a national disgrace. With more than five years of deployments, our military is under undue stress. Doesn’t anyone care about the brave men and women who are fighting an endless war? I hope that our country will elect a president who will put an end to our participation in this war. The Iraqi government has failed in any attempts to reconcile the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and our military is paying a very costly price to say nothing of the thousands of Iraqi civilians.
More help is needed at all levels of care for our returning vets. They have faced numerous deployments without rest and recovery and are not getting the care that they desperately need. Congress has given “hundreds of millions of dollars” to provide mental health treatment, but evidently that is not enough. Many soldiers are faced with an 800 number in a cry for help. They need contact with a real person a psychiatrist or a psychologist and far too many are not getting that help. Many suffer from PTSD, a symptom not to be treated lightly. My grandson, home for over a year and out of the Marine Corps, still has bad dreams at night with sounds of gunfire walking him. Mr. Bush, what a legacy your are leaving behind!
Many soldiers think that they must be strong and that seeking help is a stigma. Not so! They need to get help not only for themselves but their families. More military members with PTSD are having marital problems, domestic abuse and brushes with the law plus drug and alcohol abuse. Not only is the Veterans Affairs mental health system “understaffed, under-funded, under-equipped” but many Veteran’s Hospitals are having similar problems. Last year 19 vets died in one hospital alone, of poorly trained care. Congress, you need to do more, much more to solve this problem.
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