I spend a lot of time studying and researching Veterans issues…..these brave souls deserve better than they have got from the country that ordered them to sacrifice everything….life, family, emotions…….
Suicides among vets has been a particularly bad issue for the country……much has been tried to reach out to these vets that are endangered….little has been done……
This piece is an attempt to find where the problem lies…….I do not think that it is complete…..How about you?
AS a vet I try to keep a focus on our vets and their problems after they are returned to the US………it saddens me to witness what this country is doing to these brave people……..and the government makes me real in disgust.
For several years the biggest issue is the amount of vets committing suicide and of course the government has taken this up as some sort of holy quest….then ask …..how is that working out?
Today, the Department of Defense released the Quarterly Suicide Report (QSR) for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2014.
The report summarizes confirmed suicide counts for all services and components during the months of October through December of 2014, and also includes total suicide counts for 2014, 2013 and 2012.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, there were 69 suicides among service members in the active component, 21 suicides among service members in the reserves, and 18 suicides among service members in the National Guard.
In calendar year 2014, there were 268 confirmed suicides in the active component, up slightly from 254 in 2013; 79 in the reserve, down from 86 in 2013; and 87 in the National Guard, down from 134.
The QSR is available here. Additional information is available on the Defense Suicide Prevention Office website at www.suicideoutreach.org.
Service members and their families who need support can reach out to the Military Crisis Line, which offers free and confidential support for those in crisis. The Military Crisis Line is staffed by caring, qualified responders from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, many who have served in the military themselves. Support is available through the crisis line phone number, online chat, and text-messaging services for all service members (active, National Guard and reserves) and veterans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by visiting the Military Crisis Line website at http://veteranscrisisline.net/ActiveDuty.aspx; Online Chat at: http://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ChatTermsOfService.aspx; sending a text to: 838255 or calling toll free at: 1-800-273-8255, Press 1.
There is your answer….personally, I do not trust any form of accounting used by the government……
I included the phone number…..just in case you know of a vet that is struggling please pass the number on or help them get the help they desperately need…….that is better than a simple “thank you”……
The Radical Right has got to be jumping up and down…..this story could lead to legislation in those lame Red States…….(about now some will be scratching their heads and asking ‘huh’?)
Let me explain……..
On Monday, 33-year-old Purvi Patel became the first US woman to be “charged, convicted, and sentenced for the crime of feticide for having attempted to end her own pregnancy,” according to a press release issued by National Advocates for Pregnant Women. In its report, the Washington Post notes that while the 20-year sentence she is due to serve “brought an end to Patel’s trial … it may be only the beginning of the public debate about the details of her case.” The case began in July 2013, when Patel went to St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana, bleeding and with a protruding umbilical cord, a doctor testified. Patel later revealed that she had a miscarriage and had left the fetus, which she says was stillborn, in a dumpster. Prosecutors argued the baby was born alive, hence the child neglect charge.
The feticide charge (which PRI frames as “normally used against those who harm pregnant women”) was based on text messages Patel sent indicating she had taken drugs purchased from China in an attempt to abort her fetus, reports the AP; tests showed no such drugs in her or the fetus, however. She was in February found guilty on both counts, though many have argued the two charges were “legally contradictory.” PRI reports that the gestational age of the fetus was fiercely debated at the trial. Her defense argued it was at most 24 weeks old, and would not have survived even with medical intervention; NBC News reports prosecutors argued she was 25 weeks along in their opening statement, and the aforementioned doctor testified that he thought the fetus was as many as 30 weeks. Patel indicated she would appeal. (In Indiana, a man was charged with attempted feticide after police say he spiked a woman’s drink with special herbs.)
I am not going to go into some diatribe on abortion……I will leave that to the more rabid of readers…….all I am saying that this could well be a factor in conservative politics in some states……
Right now all the d/bags are drooling over the Menendez thing and of course the Indiana situation….maybe they will not notice…….but do not be surprised if this comes back in an election cycle…….would make for great sound bites for one of those “also rans”…….
There is a good possibility that Hillary, if she decides to run (like there is doubt), will win the presidency. If so what will Washington look like for the next years?
Twitter gave me the answer I was looking for…….
I do not know if any of you remember the docu-series about WW2 by the same name…..but in today’s world it is a title that is becoming more and more true……AGAIN!
A few years back I wrote a post entitled “Looking For The Linchpin”….it is where I looked at the globe and the different little skirmishes and tried to look at the one that could plunge the world into chaos…..again. In case you would like to refresh your memory…….
http://lobotero.com/2013/06/13/looking-for-the-linchpin/
After looking at the situations I thought that the area around the Black Sea and Southern Caucuses would be that location…….(Check out the map)……
I may be partially correct for the situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia seems to be a bit hostile these days…….
(Reuters) – At least three Armenian soldiers were killed and four wounded in clashes with troops from Azerbaijan on Thursday near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, but the two sides gave conflicting death tolls and disputed who was to blame.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by its majority ethnic Armenians and is a regular point of friction between the two neighbors, who fought a war over it in the early 1990s.
Renewed violence this year along the border area has underlined the risk of a wider conflict breaking out in the South Caucasus, which is crossed by oil and gas pipelines.
The separatist region’s defense ministry said in a statement that three Armenian soldiers had died after Azeri commandos attacked their position. “The Armenian side forced the enemy to escape after a two hour clash,” the statement said.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry accused separatists of triggering the confrontation and said 20 Armenian soldiers had been killed or wounded.
But will it be more than a passing report?
We have India/Pakistan killing each other over Kashmir…….we have the total all out war in Middle East and across North Africa……Ukraine v Russia………and now we have the Saudis all but invading Yemen over some sectarian squabble……..each one is possible the linchpin that could plunge the world into yet another heated conflict that would change the face of the planet.
Could this be the reset that all have dreaded over the decades….A New World Order?