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Military Suicide Rate -- Shockingly high
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Over 6,200 in the year 2005 alone.
The Veteran Suicide Epidemic
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007...ce=search_story[/L]
CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.
And what it revealed was stunning.
In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.
Since the inception of the 'War on Terra', we have lost around 4,200 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. And 2,000 more by their own hand in one year alone.
Statistics show our young veterans have a suicide rate between two and four times higher than civilians the same age.
The 2006 totals are not in yet, and 2007 is still adding up - we won't be told for a couple more years. This has to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our Government failing the troops that need help the most.
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| Groundhog Boy |
| When you consider that 1 in 4 homeless persons are vets, how the VA s vets on their claims, and how much PTSD there is, this isn't really shocking. I actually expected higher numbers. |
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| shaolin_Z |
| I don't find it shocking to be honest, if you acutally have a good idea of what they're involved in over there. Ofcourse, there's a total whitewash in the American media about the Iraq invasion, and some pretty pathetic collective denial and apathy. So, given all that, it might come across as "shocking!" |
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| shaolin_Z |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
When you consider that 1 in 4 homeless persons are vets, how the VA s vets on their claims, and how much PTSD there is, this isn't really shocking. I actually expected higher numbers. |
Not to mention a good number of the people serving in the armed forces are from some of the worst ghettos (which I don't think is an accident). |
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| Omega_M |
| quote: | Originally posted by shaolin_Z
Not to mention a good number of the people serving in the armed forces are from some of the worst ghettos (which I don't think is an accident). |
that's total bs. You don't just need people who can aim/fire and be physically fit to join in the army. You need people with a variety of skills including many with high degree of specialization in their discipline. You won't find them in ghettos. You will find them in good educational institutions. |
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| Zild |
| Maybe a few but most of the people I know in the military only went through high school. |
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| shaolin_Z |
| quote: | Originally posted by Omega_M
that's total bs. You don't just need people who can aim/fire and be physically fit to join in the army. You need people with a variety of skills including many with high degree of specialization in their discipline. You won't find them in ghettos. You will find them in good educational institutions. |
No you don't, all you need is training and a good brainwashing to follow orders, which get's harder with more educated (not to mention older) people coming from much more stable economic backgrounds. What have you been smoking kid? You sure as don't need a degree or or more than a double digit IQ to be in the military. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Omega_M
that's total bs. You don't just need people who can aim/fire and be physically fit to join in the army. You need people with a variety of skills including many with high degree of specialization in their discipline. You won't find them in ghettos. You will find them in good educational institutions. |
In the officer corps yes, but not among most regular enlisted personnel. |
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| Omega_M |
| I presumed that people who join the armed forces always join at the bottom. Then they start to move up and become officers. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Omega_M
I presumed that people who join the armed forces always join at the bottom. Then they start to move up and become officers. |
The majority do, but some (the ones with college degrees) are able to start as an low-level officer. |
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| DJ Shibby |
| quote: | Originally posted by shaolin_Z
I don't find it shocking to be honest, if you acutally have a good idea of what they're involved in over there. Ofcourse, there's a total whitewash in the American media about the Iraq invasion, and some pretty pathetic collective denial and apathy. So, given all that, it might come across as "shocking!" |
Collective denial and apathy is a good way of putting it.
I think a lot of people just don't know how to handle the possibility that they were completely wrong. Psychologically, when humans make mistakes, they don't usually learn from them. Instead, the memory is repressed, changed, ignored, etc in order to allow the individual to continue living in the same comfortable style that they lived previously.
A few months ago my dad said, "Well we may have been wrong, but we needed saddam out." which eventually failed him and degenerated into, "Well we may have been wrong, but we need the oil."
The repercussions of such a poor evolutionary mechanism have manifested themselves generation by generation, and so here we all are in this crazy cultural circus. The funniest part is that we all talk about the war, left and right alike, yet nothing we've said or done has made any difference whatsoever in the outcome of events.
Apparently it's so ingrained in us to simply not give a that our president has taken it to be his grand motto.
Why didn't they just plant WMDs in Iraq to make it all seem okay?
They apparently knew they didn't even have to bother.
Putting their attitude in perspective:
Cheney shot a man in the face while hunting without a license!!!
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