Tag: us military

Suicide Rate Surged Among Veterans

Suicides among United States military veterans ballooned by 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to new statistics released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department. "Of the more than 30,000 suicides in this country each year, fully 20 percent of them are acts by veterans,” said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at a VA-sponsored suicide prevention … Continue reading “Suicide Rate Surged Among Veterans”

Still Not Home for the Holidays

While most of the rest of us celebrate the holidays with family and friends, several hundred thousand U.S. troops will – once again – be separated from their loved ones. Currently, there are some 117,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and another 68,000 in Afghanistan, with another 30,000 to be deployed "in the first part of … Continue reading “Still Not Home for the Holidays”

Why Are Military Families in Holiday Need?

Today, alongside the country’s meekest and poorest, thousands of children and wives of deployed soldiers are lining up for charity in order to make their holidays as full of cheer as the rest of ours. How easily we accept that military children – in part because of low pay and the crushing financial burdens of … Continue reading “Why Are Military Families in Holiday Need?”

Grinding Down the US Army

Last week, the U.S. Army released its suicide figures for November. Twelve soldiers on active duty were classified as "potential suicides" for the month, bringing the yearly suicide total to 147, 19 more than for all of 2008, and the fifth year in a row the rate has risen. In the same week, a RAND … Continue reading “Grinding Down the US Army”

Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care

With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Eric Jasinski enlisted in the military in 2005, and deployed to Iraq in October 2006 as an intelligence analyst with … Continue reading “Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care”

Whistleblower Psychiatrist Warns of Soldier-on-Soldier Violence

MARFA, Texas – Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who was hired last January to treat Marines returning from war who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other acute mental health problems borne from their deployments, fears more soldier-on-soldier violence without radical changes in the current soldier health care system. Working for a personnel-recruiting company which … Continue reading “Whistleblower Psychiatrist Warns of Soldier-on-Soldier Violence”

The Children’s Crusade

"It really boils down to one of two decisions, getting out or getting in." – President Lyndon Johnson, speaking about Vietnam "Soldiers came to school today," announced the kindergarten kid. “They only kill bad people. They don’t kill good people.” This story comes to us by way of Jon Letman of Truthout.org. The kindergarten kid … Continue reading “The Children’s Crusade”

Out of Iraq, Into the Gulf

So here’s the mystery. You have a country that only recently had upward of 300 military bases, monster to micro, in a single war-torn land, Iraq. It probably now has something like 300 bases combined in Iraq and Afghanistan (where base-building is on the rise). Outside of those war zones, it has perhaps 800 more … Continue reading “Out of Iraq, Into the Gulf”