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Pentagon Cover Up: 1000s of US soldiers comitt suicide after fighting in Iraq

Mike Whitney | 20.11.2007 11:53 | Anti-militarism | World

Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans' suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone "THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT'S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.
 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18737.htm


11/17/07 "ICH" -- -- The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.

CBS's Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and "submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense". After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among "active duty" soldiers.

Baloney.

The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the "suicide epidemic". Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans' suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone "THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT'S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR."

That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.

If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the "official" 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.

That's right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral justification.

CBS interviewed Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental health at the Department of Veteran Affairs. Katz attempted to minimize the surge in veteran suicides saying, "There is no epidemic of suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem."

Maybe Katz right. Maybe there is no epidemic. Maybe it's perfectly normal for young men and women to return from combat, sink into inconsolable depression, and kill themselves at greater rates than they were dying on the battlefield. Maybe it's normal for the Pentagon to abandon them as soon as soon they return from their mission so they can blow their brains out or hang themselves with a garden hose in their basement. Maybe it's normal for politicians to keep funding wholesale slaughter while they brush aside the casualties they have produced by their callousness and lack of courage. Maybe it is normal for the president to persist with the same, bland lies that perpetuate the occupation and continue to kill scores of young soldiers who put themselves in harm's-way for their country.

It's not normal; it's is a pandemic---an outbreak of despair which is the natural corollary of living in constant fear; of seeing one's friends being dismembered by roadside bombs or children being blasted to bits at military checkpoints or finding battered bodies dumped on the side of a riverbed like a bag of garbage.

The rash of suicides is the logical upshot of Bush's war. Returning soldiers are traumatized by their experience and now they are killing themselves in droves. Maybe we should have thought about that before we invaded.

Check it out the video at: CBS News "Suicide Epidemic among Veterans"  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml

Mike Whitney

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Destroyer Bush

21.11.2007 11:39

Of course it is not an Al Quaeda execution squad faking suicides. But if the troops are under that much stress where are the statistics for fragging? There should be a connection, there are those who take it out against others, and those who take it out against themselves.

Mr Bush is destroying the US$, it seems he may be destroying the US Army morale as well. Give him the Order of Lenin,

ilyan


Bias

05.12.2007 19:57

You are assuming that the vetrans returning from Iraq make up the majority of the suicides reported in those 45 states. That is innacurate. A large number of Vietnam vets have and continue to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as other mental illnesses and addictions. For many, the experience of witnessing the Iraq war from a distance has re-opened PTSD experiences. A large number of those Vietnam vets have turned to suicide.

The purpose of the CBS story is to illustrate the failures of the Veteran's Administration in addressing the problem of suicide among vetrans.

You are spinning CBS' story to be anti-Iraq war by trying to breeze over the ages and service records of the suicide cases revealed by those 45 states.

For instance, the story only compares the percentage of suicides between the ages of 20-24 versus non vetrans of the same age. There is no comparison between vetrans of the War on Terror versus vetrans of other wars. We are left with CBS' assertion that they had the "highest suicide rate among all vetrans", but we are not given any numbers to compare.

This is a trick to mislead the viewer into thinking that there is an "hidden casualty" number that the VA is trying to cover up. If the difference between suicide of vetrans 20-24 was different from suicides of vetrans in other age groups, CBS would have used that nubmer. Instead they compare 20-24 year old vetrans to non vetrans of the same age to make the numbers look worse than they are.

As doctor Katz put it: "Suicide in America is an epidemic, and that includes vetrans". Suicide is a general problem. Suicide among all vetrans of all ages is particularly acute. If CBS had the numbers to illustrate the difference between GWOT vetrans and other vetrans, they would have used it. They don't have the numbers. To use these deaths for a easy political point is to cheapen the pain that all victims of suicide go throuh, vetran and civillian.

I just think someone should call you out on your bias.

Fred


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