“American Kills” by Chilean-born, New York-based artist Sebastian Errazuriz is a public installation showcasing the suicide rates of US soldiers. After searching on official war sites on the internet, he accidentally found out that 2 times more American soldiers had died in 2009 by committing suicide than those killed during that same year in the war in Iraq; an alarming [...]
August 28, 2010
One suicide every 36 hours Contradicting the U.S. Army’s suicide prevention report, an independent DoD report released this week failed to place the blame for servicemembers’ and veterans’ suicide rate on ”high risk behavior” at home, implicating the suicide victims themselves. Instead, the DoD Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces’ report [see exec summary] listed 13 [...]
August 24, 2010
Watch this simple, yet compelling video from Vets Prevail, an online community offering assistance and resources to returning veterans. This video provides statistics on the outrageous veteran suicide rate, along with encouraging information on the value of a healthy veteran to his/her community.
August 21, 2010
Suicides in the Armed Forces and the National Guard and Reserves are still alarmingly on the rise. With all the due diligence and immense outreach that is ongoing in all 50 States, we cannot seem to abate the savage spirit that invades and intrudes the soul of our young veterans of war. Sixty-five members of [...]
August 20, 2010
Question: What is behind the recent spike in army suicides? Paul Rieckhoff: There are a number of factors, but here’s the bottom line: we lost 32 active duty soldiers to suicide in the month of June. That’s just the Army, that’s just active duty, that’s just in June. If we lost 32 troops in Fallujah [...]
August 16, 2010
I’ve been pondering, because I have barely a clue about what the answer might be, what is the best way to honor and support our returning veterans. Two things are bouncing around in my head. I made a stop on a recent road trip to a Cracker Barrel Restaurant & Country Store, and saw a [...]
August 15, 2010
WASHINGTON — At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests. Under pressure from Congress and the public, the Army later acknowledged the problem and drastically cut the number of [...]
August 3, 2010
Despite the recently announced intention by Secretary Eric Shinseki and his Chief of Staff, John Gingrich, to change the “culture” of VA, the agency is in the grips of a rogue bureaucracy that bypasses congressional oversight and sabotages veterans interests and health. This was the claim made by several speakers at last Tuesday’s hearing of [...]
August 3, 2010
The North Carolina Democratic Party State Executive Committee passed a resolution supporting the legalization of medical marijuana at its convention Sunday in Fayettevillle. The vote came after a speech from Richmond County resident and party official Perry Parks, and marks the second time Democratic leaders from the local level have asked their elected representatives to [...]
August 2, 2010
William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and teacher of History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology wrote an important piece this week at TomDispatch.com about why it’s wrong to associate military service with heroism. “By making our military generically heroic,” he writes, “we act to prolong our wars. By seeing war as essentially heroic [...]
August 30, 2010
1