YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE, TO CONDEMN, TO DISHONOR THEM IN ANY WAY!
THEY OBEY THE ORDERS OF MAD MEN, OF MEN WHO HAVE NEVER FACED SUCH ENEMIES, MEN TO WHOM WAR IS A BUSINESS, AN "EMPIRE BUILDER", FIGURES ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE, MEN WHO BAN CAMERAS FROM THE ARRIVALS OF PLANE AFTER PLANE CARRYING THE REMAINS OF OUR TROOPS.
THE MEDIA IS COMPLICIT IN HIDING THE RAW TRUTH OF WHAT THESE MEN AND WOMEN GO THROUGH EVERY BREATH THEY DRAW.
YOU WILL SELDOM SEE THE TRUTH OF DAILY LIFE ON THE GROUND IN THE COMBAT ZONES THAT HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY OUR MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX THAT SENDS OUR MOST LOVED TO DIE IN PLACES WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BOTHERED WITH IN THE FIRST PLACE.
THE TROOPS ON THE GROUND KNOW THE TRUTH, AND ONLY THEY CAN TELL IT.
ONLY THEY CAN JUDGE WHO WAS RIGHT OR WRONG, ONLY THEY CAN TELL US WHAT WE ALL NEED TO KNOW, AND WE SHOULD LISTEN!
ANYONE WHO SEES THESE VETERANS AS WEAK, AS COWARDLY, ANYONE WHO SEES THEIR TEARS AND REMORSE AS ANYTHING BUT THE BARE TRUTH OF WHAT THEY'VE LIVED SHOULD BUY A TICKET AND GO LIVE AS THEY DO IN THESE SANDLOT NATIONS AND SEE WHAT THE REALITY OF WAR IS!
REAL MEN WEEP, AND THESE ARE ALL REAL MEN!
WHAT WE OWE, WHAT WE MUST PAY TO OUR RETURNING VETS IS TO LISTEN, TO LISTEN TO THEM, TO BE THERE TO REALLY "SUPPORT" THEM, TO PROVIDE CARE AND COMPASSION, TO ASSIST THEM WITH ANYTHING THEY NEED TO LIVE OVER THESE TIMES.
WAR IS HELL, BUT FEW WHO MAY READ HERE CAN EVER UNDERSTAND THAT KIND OF HELL...YOU NEVER LIVED IN IT!
IN NO WAY DO I CONDONE OR ACCEPT SUICIDE AS A 'SOLUTION' TO ANYTHING, BUT I CAN EMPATHIZE WITH ENTERTAINING THE NOTION.
WHEN NO ONE LISTENS AND NO ONE CAN HELP, WHEN NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'VE GONE THROUGH AND COME BACK FROM, WHEN THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN IS UNBRIDLED, NOT HELPED BY ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, WHEN YOU SEE THE PAIN RIPPING APART OTHER LIVES, WHEN YOU JUST CANNOT CLIMB OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND HOPELESSNESS IS ALL YOU KNOW, THEN FRUSTRATION IS REDEFINED, AND, WITHOUT HOPE FOR BETTER, THOUGHTS CREEP IN THAT LIE AND SAY "THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY OUT. "
HOW CAN OUR VETERANS FIGHT SUCH THINGS ALONE?
THEY FOUGHT WITHOUT YOU ON BATTLEFIELDS, BUT NOW THEY NEED YOU BESIDE THEM!
BE THERE!
WE'VE SPENT TRILLIONS ON THESE POINTLESS WARS, POINTLESS BECAUSE ALL THAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IS LOSS OF LIFE ON BOTH "SIDES" AND CONTINUED HOSTILITY AND GROWING HATRED FOR OUR LOVED ONES WHO ARE SENT INTO THESE PITS OF HELL.
NO OTHER NATION WILL EVER CHANGE THE WAY MIDDLE EASTERN NATIONS LIVE, IT'S THEIR CHOICE TO LIVE AS THEY PLEASE!
THEY WILL GO, OUR TROOPS WILL GO, AS THEY HAVE ALWAYS GONE, IN OUR PLACE, THEY GO SO WE DON'T EVER HAVE TO, BUT WHEN THEY COME BACK, IF THEY COME BACK, WE OWE THEM FAR MORE THAN THE TRILLIONS WE'VE SPENT ON WAR THESE PAST 12 LONG YEARS!
IF YOU HAVE VETERANS IN YOUR FAMILY, IN YOUR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, IN YOUR COMMUNITY, ON YOUR STREETS, PAY ATTENTION TO THEM! HELP THEM!
LISTEN TO THEM, WATCH OUT FOR THEIR WELFARE!
BYALLTHEGODS, REALLY, AT LAST, "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS"!!!
PUT YOUR ACTIONS WHERE YOUR MOUTHS HAVE BEEN!
BELOW, A NEWS VIDEO ON THE SUICIDE OF IRAQ VETERAN DANIEL SOMERS.
YOU CAN READ THE LETTER HERE:
http://gawker.com/i-am-sorry-that-it-has-come-to-this-a-soldiers-last-534538357
Tomas Young says he'll commit suicide & called out WAR CRIMINALS Bush & Cheney "I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. ... I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. ... I hope you will be put on trial. "
YOUNG HAS SINCE DECIDED TO LIVE AS LONG AS HE CAN "FOR THE SAKE OF HIS WIFE".
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/20/4245465/tomas-young-wounded-iraq-war-vet.html
<<Young said he changed his mind after his first wedding anniversary on April 20.
“As much time as I can have with him I want to have,” Cuellar said. “But if it’s too painful for him, whenever he feels for him that he’s ready to go, I will be ready whenever he’s ready. As long as I can keep him and he’s comfortable, that would be really nice.”
Young said Monday that he remains at home under hospice care. He said he’s doing fairly well.>>
Published on Apr 1, 2012
AFN's Michelle Michael takes us inside the mind of a Soldier with suicidal motives after war. Here is the story of an Army captain who is going public with her struggles for the very first time.
More U.S. soldiers have died this year by taking their own lives than on the battlefield. The Pentagon says there have been at least 154 suicides among active-duty troops in 2012, a rate of nearly one each day. We're joined by three guests: Kevin Hines, who survived a jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and now counsels suicidal soldiers; Bonnie Carroll, co-chair of the Pentagon's Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide in the Armed Forces and president of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors; and journalist Aaron Glantz, author of the book "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans."
Winner of Best Short Film of the Year and Best Editing for the Mitten Movie Project 2010, Royal Oak, MI
Official Selection of the 2010 Blue Water Film Festival
Official Selection of the 2011 Detroit Independent Film Festival, Central Florida Film Festival, Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, DC Shorts Film Festival
"'People think their soldiers return home to parades. I know better. And it's time you all learn.'"
THIS IS ONLY ONE SUPPOSED REASON...EACH STORY IS UNIQUE, EACH ONE'S 'REASONING' IS A DIFFERENT REASON KNOWN ONLY TO THOSE WHO CHOOSE THIS WAY.
Army Ranger Suicide Before 9th Deployment To Iraq/Afghanistan
An Army Ranger committed suicide and his widow says it's because he couldn't come to grips with what he'd seen and done in Iraq and Afghanistan.
EIGHT DEPLOYMENTS! ONE WAS TOO MANY, 8 WAS CRIMINAL OF THOSE WHO SENT HIM!
IRAQ IS IN CIVIL WAR.
IRAQ IS IN RUIN.
IRAQ IS BACK TO SQUARE ONE.
NOTHING WILL EVER END THIS CONFLICT, SO WHAT WAS THE POINT IN AMERICA''S SACRIFICE?
HAD OUR "LEADERS" LEARNED ONE SMALL THING FROM ANCIENT HISTORY, FROM WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THAT REGION FOR MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS, PERHAPS THEY WOULD HAVE NEVER DECIDED TO SEND OUR BEST AND BELOVED ONTO THOSE DESERT SANDS.
TOO LATE...
JUST ONE RESOURCE PAGE FOR VETERANS, BUT SO MUCH MORE IS NEEDED.
http://maketheconnection.net/conditions/depression
THE MILITARY OFTEN ACTUALLY PUNISHES THOSE WHO ADMIT DEPRESSION, OR ASK FOR HELP!
Soldiers Say Army Ignores, Punishes Mental Anguish
December 04, 2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6576505
<<...soldiers who've returned to Ft. Carson from Iraq say they feel betrayed by the way officials have treated them. Army files show that these were soldiers in good standing before they went to Iraq, and that they started spinning out of control upon their return.
Soldiers at Ft. Carson also say that even when they request support, the mental-health unit is so overwhelmed that they can't get the help they need.
Almost all of the soldiers said that their worst problem is that their supervisors and friends turned them into pariahs when they learned that they were having an emotional crisis. Supervisors said it's true: They are giving some soldiers with problems a hard time, because they don't belong in the Army.>>
THEY "DON'T BELONG"???
THEY "BELONGED" JUST FINE WHILE THEY WERE LAYING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK!
September/October 2008 Issue
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/pentagons-ptsd-denial
<<In the spring of 2002, an Army major named Peter Kilner submitted an unusual essay to Military Review, a journal published by the Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Kilner argued that combat leaders have an obligation to justify the killing their soldiers do. "Soldiers who kill reflexively in combat will likely one day reconsider their actions reflectively," he wrote. "If they are unable to justify to themselves that they killed another human being, they will likely, and understandably, suffer enormous guilt" that could balloon into post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Top brass who ignored the issue, he concluded, were "treating their soldiers as commodities, not as persons."
At one point, a few of Kilner's superiors tried to discourage him from presenting his ideas publicly. "They told me it's bad PR," he says. "I literally had a colonel pull me in the closet and threaten to break me if I spoke to the press."
In his research, which has included two monthlong trips to Iraq, Kilner has noted a pattern. Soldiers whose commanders openly discuss the dilemmas of killing before and after combat appear to cope well with their experiences. Soldiers who lack that support fall into isolation or depression. He paraphrases psychologist and retired Lt. Colonel David Grossman, the author of On Killing: "If you go into it cracked, you come out of it shattered. If you go into it strong, you come out stronger." Hefner agrees with that assessment. "Let's be honest. Most of our trigger pullers are kids, 18, 19 years old. How many of our 18- and 19-year-olds are anything but cracked?">>
LISTEN!!!
LISTEN TO THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO LIVED IT!
FROM 'VETERANS TODAY', March 11th, 2013
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/03/11/report-details-flaws-in-armys-handling-of-ptsd/
<<Last May, the Army commissioned a task force to conduct a sweeping review of how it evaluates soldiers for mental health problems at all its facilities. The review came under pressure from Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, who was upset to learn that hundreds of soldiers at Madigan Army Medical Center south of Seattle had had their PTSD diagnoses reversed by a forensic psychiatry team, resulting in a potential cut to their benefits and questions about whether the changes were made to save money.
About 150 of those soldiers eventually had their diagnoses restored.
“I am pleased that the Army completed this review and has vowed to make fixes over the next year, though I am disappointed it has taken more than a decade of war to get to this point,” Murray said in a statement. “Many of the 24 findings and 47 recommendations in this report are not new. Creating a universal electronic health record, providing better rural health access, and standardizing the way diagnoses are made, for instance, have been lingering problems for far too long. Our service members and their families deserve better.”
Nationwide, the report said, 6,400 soldiers had behavioral health diagnoses “adjusted” by medical evaluation boards, with approximately equal numbers having PTSD added as a diagnosis and removed as a diagnosis.
Two locations where medical evaluation boards are held had slightly higher rates of diagnosis changes than the Army-wide average – Fort Polk in Louisiana and Fort Irwin in California, Horoho said. Cases from those locations are being reviewed to ensure no soldiers were improperly affected, but part of the reason for the higher rates may be because those bases rely heavily on civilian health workers, she said.
Last year the Army – and the military as a whole – suffered the highest number of suicides ever recorded, prompting then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to declare it an epidemic. The Army had 183 suicides among ACTIVE-DUTY soldiers, up from 167 in 2011, and the military as a whole had 350 ACTIVE-DUTY suicides, up from 301 the year before.
The task force found that of the soldiers surveyed, 37 percent had never received any information about the Army’s disability evaluation system or had to seek the information out on their own. It also said it was confusing and inefficient for troops to navigate the vastly different disability systems maintained by the Army and the Veterans Administration.>>
HOW MANY VETERANS, OR TROOPS ON THE GROUND FAIL TO REPORT ISSUES WITH SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, WITH DEPRESSION, WITH PTSD? PERHAPS MORE THAN EVER DO REPORT THESE THINGS, FAR MORE THAN EVER TRY TO GET HELP.
WHY DOES THE MILITARY FROWN ON GETTING HELP, ON REPORTING THE NEED FOR HELP?
WE SHOULD FIND OUT WHY AND CORRECT THEIR THINKING!
WE SHOULD SEND THOSE MISTREATING OR REFUSING TO TREAT OUR TROOPS OVER FOR A 'TOUR OF DUTY', PUT THEIR BOOTS ON THE GROUND!
WE MUST HELP, NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES, NO MATTER WHAT IT COSTS!
OUR VETERANS, OUR COMBAT FORCES ARE WORTH THE LAST DIME WE HAVE TO SEE THEM THROUGH THESE TIMES!
THEY FOUGHT IN OUR PLACE, NOW WE MUST FIGHT FOR THEM!
CALL YOUR ELECTED LIARS AND DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO HELP OUR VETERANS, OUR ACTIVE-DUTY TROOPS.
SO FAR, THIS YEAR, WHAT THEY'VE DONE IS CUT FUNDING FOR THEM!
WE SHOULD "CUT FUNDING" FOR THOSE WHO FAIL TO MAINTAIN OUR TROOPS AS THEY SHOULD BE MAINTAINED!
WE SHOULD FIRE THE LOT OF THEM!
CALL, WRITE, GET SERIOUS ABOUT "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS"!
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