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 1, 2010
Though suicides among active-duty service members are carefully tracked — they hit a one-month record, 32, in June — no reliable data exists for suicides by veterans. By James Dao in the NYT CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Melanie Poorman swiveled in her chair and punched a button on the phone. The caller, an Iraq war veteran in his [...]
July 22, 2010
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Four Fort Bragg-based soldiers have committed suicides in 2010 as the Army post puts together plans to train soldiers to not only spot suicidal tendencies, but intervene. Fort Bragg officials said Wednesday along with the four confirmed suicides, two deaths are under investigation. The North Carolina base reported six suicides in all [...]
July 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — Congressman Charles Rangel on Thursday introduced H.R. 5741, a bill that would reinstate a compulsory military draft, or alternative national service, during times of war, for men and women, aged 18 to 42, who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States. “What troubles me most about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan [...]
July 20, 2010
The following testimony is a copy from the Vietnam Veterans of America website, as presented to the House of Representatives Committee on Veterans Affairs. It provides valuable insight in what is being done and what is not being done to address the ongoing issue of veteran suicides, at 18 per day. Of note is that [...]
July 20, 2010
Before MDMA became used recreationally under the street name Ecstasy, hundreds of psychiatrists and psychotherapists around the world administered MDMA as a catalyst to psychotherapy. MDMA was criminalized in the US in 1985 (it had been illegal in the UK since 1977). Several decades later, this study is the first completed randomised, double-blinded clinical trial [...]
July 18, 2010
18 veterans per day in this country commit suicide. The National Institute on Mental Health reports suicide as a major, preventable public health problem. In 2006, it was the eleventh leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 33,300 deaths. The overall rate was 10.9 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. An estimated 12 to [...]
August 15, 2010
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