The President's Personal "Sacrifice"
The President took his own Memorial Day admonishment to heart long ago. He personally "sacrificed". Over three months after declaring "Mission Accomplished" in May 2003, a truck bomb exploded outside the United Nations headquarters in downtown Baghdad. An event that profoundly affected George Bush's life.
During a May, 2008 interview, Commander-in-Chief Bush explained his solemn August 19, 2003 decision to "honor his debt to the families of America's fallen soldiers" by standing in solidarity with the sacrifices being made by our troops.Bush declared that he had "made the ultimate sacrifice":
He gave up golf. Allegedly, for the duration of the war.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf.""... I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Sane, astute readers will immediately note the hypocrisy: For Bush, the issue was not a matter of honoring our fallen. The issue was merely avoiding being caught at refusing to honor our fallen. A subtle distinction that's surely lost on America's infantile, psychopathic President.Suicide
The predictable course of "progress" has since accelerated substantially. As to Vietnam, 25 years were required from the start of major hostilities in 1965 to the time a shameful milestone was reached. As to Iraq, the time required was shortened, to a matter of months.In December 2007 Ira Katz, head of mental health at the Veteran's Administration, confirmed that four to five suicides occur daily among vets who are actively receiving treatment from the VA.
For two reasons, the actual number is far higher, and has reliably been reported to be about 18 per day. That is 126 per week, or 6,552 per year - a number far in excess of the 4,082 combat deaths in Iraq officially reported by the Pentagon.
First, VA routinely turns away vets who seek help in treatment for mental disorders. Numerous reasons are invented to justify denying health care to vets with mental problems resulting from their service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Second, VA has a 600,000-vet backlog of claims for benefits that have not been processed. A backlog resulting from America's Commander-in-Chief steadfastly refusing to request that Congress provide funding VA so urgently requires.
The refusal to provide help for suicidal veterans in need is nothing short of criminal. Jonathan Schulze stands tall as one shameful example. A Marine who was awarded two purple hearts for wounds suffered in Iraq. Thirty-five Marines in Jonathan's unit were killed there, 17 in a 2-day period. Upon return to Minnesota, Jonathan suffered nightmares while asleep and flashbacks while awake.
On December 16th he went to the Minneapolis VA center seeking help, met with a psychiatrist and was told he couldn't be admitted for 4 months.
On January 11th he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud seeking help and advised he was suicidal. VA refused admission and turned Jonathan away.
On January 12th Jonathan called VA, again advised he was suicidal and was told he was number 26 on the waiting list.
On January 16th, Jonathan was found dead, hanging from an electrical cord.
The Plague of PTSD The primary cause of suicide by American veterans is thought to be PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This has not been confirmed. Because, five years after America's invasion of Iraq, the VA has not yet completed a study of possible links between PTSD and suicide.
Prior to the invasion of Iraq, VA claimed the expected number of PTSD cases would not exceed 8,000. According to a recent study completed by a division of the RAND Corporation, about 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer symptoms of PTSD or major depression - almost 38 times the projected number. Spouses left alone, together with their dependent children, increase the total number to about one million. Only 53 percent of the vets sought help. The low percentage is primarily due to widespread belief in the military that seeking treatment is a sign of weakness, and resulting fears that admission of mental distress will adversely affect military careers.
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